[Samba] Multiple GPL violations including Samba in Auralic products

[Jeremy Allison]

On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 01:36:18PM +0100, Robert Ladru via samba wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I recently bought an Auralic Aries Mini streamer. This little streamer
> can also function as a NAS when mounting a laptop drive or ssd inside,
> via samba.
> The box did not come with a media containing source code and did not
> include a GPL written offer.
> 
> So I asked Auralic to provide the source code for all GPlv2 and v3
> packages used.
> 
> For the Linux kernel and their modifications, they asked to sign an
> NDA, which is clearly forbidden by the GPL.
> For Samba 3.6.23 which they use, they have no intentions to release
> the source, as they also have already stated on computeraudiophile.com
> that they only share the kernel, nothing else:
> 
> http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/alternatives-aries-23864/index4.html#post411669
> 
> "For the repository: We only publish what we believe is 'fully
> complete'. That's why the kernel source code was not published a long
> time ago because we do not consider it as 'complete'. Most of the open
> source code project in the community are full of bugs, I am pretty
> regret about this."
> 
> 
> Here's proof they use 3.6.23:
> 
>         Server               Comment
>         ---------            -------
>         ARIES-1L9YS2O8       Samba 3.6.23
> 
> It's obvious they are using various loopholes to avoid sharing the GPL
> source code used in their products, and they only share the kernel,
> nothing else.
> They probably also violate busybox, as their embedded linux platform
> runs a dropbear (SSH-2.0-dropbear_2012.55), but the root password is
> not known, so the only way to know what other packages they violate is
> to hack the device.
> 
> How can we obtain the source code of GPlv2 and v3 packages such as
> Samba when the vendor is refusing?

Thanks for reporting this. I'll take this up further with the
vendor and see if we can get this fixed. Are you willing to
help us by providing binary extracts of the firmware etc. to
allow us to prove this is our code ?

Thanks,

Jeremy.