Android’s foundations are born in open source, releasing as an open source operating system and growing to be the largest operating system in the world. Without licenses like the General Public License (GPL), open source could not have been enforced in the way that it was. XDA itself has grown from the open source community, with a thriving community built around the Android Open Source Project and the hundreds of devices that run Android. The GPL has protected so much of the growing Android community over the years. It allows developers from anywhere in the world to take a device, take the kernel source code, take the Android source code and make something great out of it. It’s a recipe for brilliance in some cases, with some amazing feats of intuition and development shown daily by our amazing developer community. That hasn’t stopped companies like OnePlus, IUNI, Motorola and even Samsung in 2011 from not abiding by the GPLv2 however.
With that, I’m sure it’s understandable why we dislike when companies break the GPL. It’s attacking the very ground from which Android grew, and in turn, our great developer community surrounding the platform. Open source is pretty great, the GPL is pretty great and breaking the GPL (which is also breaking the law) is pretty bad.
Motorola Violates the GPL
Motorola have violated the GPL before. Now it’s almost worse. They’re not releasing kernel sources for a multitude of devices. They released the kernel source for the Moto Z, which has missing camera drivers, which is not acceptable. Their GitHub is flooded with requests for the kernel sources, and it’s always “a few days” away. The Moto Z took 8 months for the kernel source to be released. The kernel sources that companies release, according to the GPL, are required to match the binaries which ship with the device.
“In a few days”
Why is Motorola taking so long?
We are under the impression that Motorola is attempting to hide future devices which may be referenced in the source code, or hide features they are working on. It does not make sense that they are willingly taking so long to release kernel sources, and then removing drivers from them. They should be entirely aware that they are not abiding by the license. Sources need to be released at the same time as the binaries are released, yet it has taken Motorola months. These delays do not make sense — it should not take months to release a broken kernel source for a device, there is absolutely no excuse. Smaller OEMs can (and do) comply with the GPL with ease. OnePlus, a company which many may remember had issues at one point with the GPL didn’t even stoop this low. We expect better from Motorola.
What can happen to Motorola?
In theory, Motorola can be sued for violations of the GPL- but let’s not get too hasty. Many companies have violated the GPL at some stage and not faced legal action, but then again many have violated the GPL and faced legal action. The Free Software Foundation can and has enforced the GPL in the past. It’s not likely we will see a lawsuit, but it can in theory happen. The costs would be huge and the battle would probably take years, by which time the FSF may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees. We can only push for Motorola to release sources, and in proper, working condition. A company should not release kernel sources which do not work. These violations of GPL attack the open source community as a whole, and we hope that they will eventually release proper, timely kernel sources for their devices.
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