edited

Hello,

I am mailing you today to report violations to GNU GPL v2 due to the Android vendor 'Xiaomi Inc.'

They have used the Android Kernel on their phones which is basically a fork of the Linux Kernel and both of these kernels are under GNU GPL v2 license. I'm going into as much details as possible so that you will be aware of the license violations and will compel Xiaomi to release the source codes without further delay.

So first here are the details of company who caused the violation :-

Precise Name of Product :- Xiaomi Mi3 and Xiaomi RedMi 1S
Precise Name of Company :- Xiaomi Inc
Location : Basically Mainland China
Contact Mail addresses :-
Contact Person: - Hugo Barra - VP for International

How the license is violated :-
Xiaomi is China-based android mobile phone vendor which is currently selling it's phones commercially in Asia. They have future plans to enter into global market soon.
Now these Xiaomi phone models mentioned are using Android Platform by Google as their mobile phone's OS. The smartphones come pre-installed with MIUI OS which is basically modded versions of Android.
Android is built upon the Linux Kernel and the Linux Kernel is under GNU GPL v2 license.
So Xiaomi Mi3 and RedMI 1S are the two devices currently which they have been selling, Xiaomi Mi3 since 12 months ago (released December 2013), and Xiaomi Redmi 1S since 6 months ago (released May 2014) in many countries commercially but they have kept the kernel sources CLOSED, i.e. violating GPL to keep the sources OPEN.

As Linux kernel is totally open sourced and under GNU GPL v2 license:

Here are the few reasons why it should be open sourced :-

*The GPL states that anyone who modifies GPL licensed code is required to make available the sources used to compile it. This is to further improve and encourage collaborative work, as well as to ensure that the best code possible is produced, and to encourage peer-review of all work. This benefits both developers and end users in numerous ways, including:

(a) Allowing anyone to verify the code they are trusting with their data, and its authenticity
(b) Encouraging community collaboration to produce faster fixes and updates, and better code
(c) Helping bring new developments from other devices and fields to your own, letting you benefit from new code that wouldn’t have been available without this sharing.

The GPL imparts great freedom for GPL end users. It ensures innovation is never stifled and no project is dependent upon any single developer.
Sources accompanying a release should be complete, and contain all the necessary source code for any modules, scripts or definition files. Complete sources will be defined as those which compile correctly and completely against the platform for which the software is distributed, and which contain any and all modifications made to the released General Public licensed code. The source code supplied should be the exact version for which the source code is being requested, complete with all modifications.

Here is the link where we can see Linux kernel is using GNU GPL v2 license .
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/COPYING
Here is link where can we clearly see Android Kernel is using GNU GPL v2 license
https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/common.git/+/android-3.10/COPYING

Now according to GPL, a developer is free to mode the sources the way he wants to, he can re-distribute it commercially, too, but he has to, AS COMPLIANCE TO THE OPENSOURCE AGREEMENT, upload his changes to the open community and PROVIDE complete sources which is buildable.

Now Xiaomi has not open-sourced their kernel sources yet despite of using Android Kernel. This is complete violation to GPL. We end-users have tried many times contacting them but simply they respond like they're working on it and will release it soon but that soon never actually came.

I guess they never cared about getting it open source. I guess none here cares in my country (India) to GPL violation but I presume you people are here to help us with getting kernel sources open sourced from smartphone manufacturers who violate the GPL agreement. The thing is, the pre-built binary kernel which is made available to us by Xiaomi is very much outdated (i.e. components in the sources) and for porting newer Android releases update of things at kernel level is very much needed but due to lack of sources not much development did take place into our devices but with your help if we get sources pushed up for everyone. It will be very much useful for us for further development of our devices.

Reason of mailing you people is because as written on license file it clearly states :-
NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work". Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.
So 'Free Software Foundation' has copyrights on this kernel source.

I hope I have provided you with all much details needed to act against this violation. We all hope that you'd soon revert back to us with solid and positive commitments to resolve this very blatant disregard for the GPL license by Xiaomi.

Regards,
XYZ