But can you modify and use it?

Posted Jan 10, 2025 11:51 UTC (Fri) by Karellen (subscriber, #67644)
In reply to: But can you modify and use it? by epa
Parent article: SFC reports a successful (L)GPL suit in Germany

From the fine article:

The defendant, Berlin-based AVM, ultimately delivered the necessary information to reinstall modified software on their device. Delivery of this information resolved the lawsuit. The plaintiff was Sebastian Steck, who received a grant from SFC to pursue this work. Steck purchased an AVM router in May 2021 and quickly found that the source code candidate which AVM sent him could not be compiled and reinstalled onto his router. AVM, the largest home router manufacturer in Germany, refused to correct its source code candidate. Steck sued AVM in a Berlin court in July 2023.

Months after the lawsuit was filed, AVM finally provided Steck with all remaining source code that Steck requested, including “the scripts used to control … installation of the library”.

(Emphasis mine)

But can you modify and use it?

Posted Jan 10, 2025 12:05 UTC (Fri) by epa (subscriber, #39769) [Link] (1 responses)

It wasn't completely clear whether this meant "a working installer, which Sebastian Steck has tried out successfully" or just "here's a complete buildable set of source code, which you would certainly be able to install on your device if you had the signing key, which of course we can't give you".

I think the former, but I'm missing a more techy blog post where they demonstrate that this thing really works.

But can you modify and use it?

Posted Jan 10, 2025 14:34 UTC (Fri) by ossguy (guest, #82918) [Link]

Yes, it is the former. You can try it out for yourself by downloading the source from https://sfconservancy.org/usethesource/candidate/avm-frit... , which has all the instructions.

There are more details, including other source code candidates Steck received, at https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/avm.html .