Copyright and GPL infringement in tinyPEAP

Alan DeKok aland at freeradius.org
Sun Jun 5 21:46:10 CEST 2005


  Your web site http:/www.tinypeap.com is distributing binaries built
at least in part from code that is derived from the FreeRADIUS server
project (http://www.freeradius.org).  I refer you to the following
URL's:

http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5649

  This message contains text with error messages "rlm_eap_tls:
SSL_read failed inside of TLS ".  The "rlm_eap_tls" module is part of
FreeRADIUS, and it is beyond reason to believe that you have
independently chosen a name for an internal portion of the server that
is identical to that used by FreeRADIUS.

http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4533

  This message contains text by you which claims that tinyPEAP is
"closed source".

http://www.tinypeap.com/bin/peapd-beta1.zip

  This URL points to a file which contains "peapd.exe".  That file
contains at least the following text strings, which are either
identical to strings included with FreeRADIUS, or substantially
similar:

--
rlm_eap_tls: FATAL SSL error ..... %d
rlm_eap_tls: %s failed inside of TLS (%d), TLS session fails.
rlm_eap_tls: %s failed in a system call (%d), TLS session fails.
handshake_send
rlm_eap_tls: Application Data
In SSL Connect mode 
In SSL Accept mode 
Before SSL Handshake Phase
In SSL Handshake Phase
SSL Connection Established
SSL_read
 rlm_eap_tls: Requiring client certificate
rlm_eap_tls: Error creating new SSL
--

  Once again, it is beyond reason that you have independently come up
with an implementation that is identical to that chosen by FreeRADIUS.
I will be investigating this matter further, and may contact you with
additional details about this matter.

  Nothing under copyright law gives you permission to use our
copyrighted code without our permission.  The only license terms
available for the code in question is the GNU GPL, which is
distributed with the FreeRADIUS server source.  The terms of that
license require you to make the source code for derived works
available under the same terms as the the original code.  I refer you
to section 2 (b):

---
    b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
    whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
    part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
    parties under the terms of this License.
---

  To that end, we offer you one of the following two choices:

  1) Remove any infringing binaries from your website, until such time
as you remove the infringing code from your product.  This removal may
be done by re-writing the code in question.  A simple edit of the text
strings will not suffice, as our copyright applies to the binaries
produced from the C source code, in addition to the text strings.

  2) Release all relevant code under the terms of the GPL license, as
required by the terms of the FreeRADIUS server license.

  We look forward to seeing your response in this matter.

  Alan DeKok.
  Project Leader,
  The FreeRADIUS Server Project



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