Possible license violation in closed source driver

[Mathias W. <mat...@we...>]

Hi everyone

I am a long-time user of libusb in the robotics field and appreciate the
library. I just came across a piece of software that appears to be
violating the LGPL terms of license:

The blue fox camera[1] comes with drivers[2] that are statically linked
against a modified version of libusb. Quoting from their README[3]:

-->--
23 [Our own modified version of libusb-1.0 has been statically linked to our library
24 and is therefore included, so libusb-1.0 is not a requirement.]
--<--

It appears as if they (a) modified libusb and (b) statically linked it
against their own library. I have two problems with that.

First, I was unable to find the source code of their modifications.
There is [4] with the note "Modified version of CVS snapshot from August
2005". The README inside of the tarball[4] says "version 1.0.0beta",
while some file[5] in the driver tarball[2] says "Linux version of
mvBlueFOX driver makes use of libusb 1.0.8 now" which was released way
after 2005 to the best of my knowledge.

Second, my understanding of the LGPL is that, despite their static
linking, it should be possible to modify the libusb-part and re-link
(e.g. to object files provided by them) which appears to be impossible
to anyone but them.

It looks like I will have to work with this camera quite extensively in
the future and I would like to understand the protocol and maybe write
an open source driver (I will have to run this on ARM platforms as
well). Being able to modify libusb would be to some help, though I know
that there is other, slightly more tricky means to achieve the same.

Hence I'd like to ask matrix vision for the missing parts. But before I
do that, it deems important to me to consult with the copyright holders,
hence this email.

Best regards and thank you for your efforts

Matt

[1] http://www.matrix-vision.com/USB2.0-industrial-camera-mvbluefox.html
[2] "Downloads" tab in [1], "Drivers and applications for Linux 2.6 ..
    3.x.x (mvIMPACT Acquire)", file "mvBlueFOX x86_64_ABI2 2.2.1.tgz"
    => http://www.matrix-vision.com/USB2.0-industrial-camera-mvbluefox.html?file=tl_files/mv11/support/mvIMPACT_Acquire/01/mvBlueFOX-x86_64_ABI2-2.2.1.tgz
[3] README.mvBlueFOX in [2]
[4] http://gpl.matrix-vision.com/others/libusb/
[5] mvIMPACT_CPP/versionInfo.txt in [2]