There seems to be a rise in companies violating the GPL. Unfortunately, only legal action looks strong enough to stop it.
http://libertybsd.net/ubiquiti/
Honestly I am not surprised, but this is not OK.
depends on license... which version of GNU they use?
Is this the same company that sells the Ubiquiti Aircam? if so I was just reading the other day that the cameras ship with software that is a lot like Zoneminder and was speculated to be infringing but nothing official, I don't know enough about the subject to even guess if Zoneminder has a GPL or is licensed under some other programs GPL, although I did see this on their wiki.
Can anyone explain to me why ANY company would do this?
I mean it's ok to sell closed-source software (for me personally it's totally not ok, but that's a different story), but why put it under GPL and then not open-source it (or not properly).
Also, Allwinner (SoC Developer) does the same thing: https://linux-sunxi.org/GPL_Violations
basically if they make improvements to software, they will need to share it with developer. (Means of gnu 3.0)
I do know what the GNU GPL says.
However I don't understand companies using it and the violating it.
They didn't make the GPL software they are using. They took GPL'd code modified it to their needs and refuse to release the changes, which is required by the GPL.
Why did they use GPL code? Because they think they can use others hard work and contribute nothing back and get away with it. And a lot of companies do this and do get away with it and they shouldn't, but we have very few people fighting these companies and they don't have the resources that these companies do.