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+
+gpl compliance in the embedded and mobile market
+
+introduction
+
+the traditional embedded [Linux] industry
+	is selling high-quality products for markets like industrial automatization
+	is typically composed by SME with very high skill level
+	typically has relatively low quantities and thus high price
+	typically has a relatively good reputation of GPL compliance
+	thus not really a big problem maker
+
+
+the mass-market embedded industry
+	has very long supply chains
+	very few entities in that chain understand the product
+	often unclear who truly originates a GPL violation
+	elements distributed over many jurisdictions
+
+
+how does that industry work
+	chipset maker develops a chipset for a given application
+	chipset maker develops Board Support Package (BSP)
+	some board-level maker produces a reference board
+	reference board + BSP are used by all other companies to build their products
+	some big OEM customers buy the products
+		not knowing or not asking what is in the product
+	the OEM sells its products through regular consumer electronics distributors
+
+
+how does that industry work, further complications
+	the BSP might not be provided by the chipset maker itself
+		they might have partnered with some other entity whom they might [erroneously?] think has better Linux skills
+		it might be an alternative 3rd party BSP
+		or it might be an improvement over the original BSP
+	the OEM might deliver its products to a telco or ISP who [sometimes exclusively] distributes the product bundled with its DSL / cable data services
+	the OEM might need to partner with some other company in order to get such an ISP/telco deal
+	any entity in the supply chain will push their own requirements down the chain
+	the board maker might not be able to have the skill, so they hire some 3rd party developers to hack the BSP to fulfill those requirements
+
+
+some other important facts about that industry
+	even those companies which you perceive as key players are nothing more than brands
+	most well-known names like D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, Belkin, ... don't do their own R&D
+	they purchase/source on a per-device basis, i.e. every device might come from a different supplier, each with its own [software] architecture
+	business relationships are very ad-hoc
+		e.g. at the time the consumer buys the product, the board maker might no longer do business with the BSP provider
+		thus, limited economic pressure can be excerted onto them
+	many of the companies in that industry apparently don't even have basic engineering policies like use of a revision control system, so they might e.g. have lost the source code at the time somebody requests it as part of GPL compliance
+
+
+specific problems we're seeing
+	an incredible amount of technical incompetence
+		almost nobody in the supply chain understands the product and its software architecture / components
+	this leads to incomplete source code releases that
+		don't have "complete corresponding source code" (GPLv2)
+			scripts to control compilation and installation
+		thus are impossible to actually compile into object code
+		contain GPL violations in itself (derivative works with proprietary components)
+
+
+