Possible violation of GPLv2 by VoronDesign

[Jacob Hrbek]

Context: As the developers refused the replacement of non-free libraries
that do not fit the definition of system libraries by using a Free
Software Solution (FreeCAD/OpenSCAD/LibFive) for the source code[1] i
decided to create a standalone fork to address these issues. During the
discussion with a lawyer they pointed out a possible licensing problem
that i want to discuss here as it possible prevents my work on the
project to which i already started the work on.

Please avoid the discussion on the use of non-free libraries in this thread.

Reconstructed history of the Free Hardware Design in question:
* 2005 - Dr. Adrian Bowyer obtains the funding by Engineering and
Physical Science Research Council[2].
* 13 September 2006 - The RepRap machine v0.2 ("Prototype") was released
as capable of printing it's own parts[2].
* 9 February 2008 - The RepRap Machine v1.0 ("Darwin") was released as
capable of printing it's own parts[2].
* 2012 Liam E. Moyer of the Massach
usetts Institute of Technology
releases CoreXY[3]
* 2016 VoronDesign makes an initial commit to the voron-2 design[4]

VoronDesign's Voron-2 was relicensed on GPLv3[5] as original Free
Hardware Design while being a fork of The RepRap 1.0 ("Darwin") released
under GPLv2 and utilizing the CoreXY design by Liam E. Moyer[3] thus it
violates GPLv2 as the authors of The RepRap 1.0 did not agreed to the
license change and are not even recognized by the VoronDesign as
contributors + possibly violating Liam E. Moyer's license to the CoreXY
as they did not clarify the license for their work (Moyer contacted with
request for clarification of the license, lets assume that being
compatible with Free Documentation license as they encourage adaptation
on the website and most likely is this work under MIT scholarship to
require the use of MIT licensing).

Proposed resolution in case the violation is confirmed:

As explained above the re-licensing on GPLv3 is assumed to voi
d the
Copyright Laws in countries that recognize it following the advise all
contributions to the design made after the illegal re-licensing should
be considered voided and granted under GPLv2 to The RepRap project as
they are the latest known developer to the design.

As such I propose The Free Software Foundation, inc. posing as a
resolution body for the VoronDesign contributors to re-claim their
contributions under GPLv2 while being encouraged to consent to the
GPLv3-or-later if all developers consent to the license change.

References:
R.1. Discussion with the developers of VoronDesign to use
FreeCAD/OpenSCAD/LibFive - https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-2/issues/308
R.2. History of the RepRap Project tracked on wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RepRap#History
R.3. Liam E. Moyer releases CoreXY design - https://corexy.com
R.4. First commit to the Voron-2 design
https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-2/commit/d3de99b277992dc90e4c2bbdc0bc1fcbd1b8f87
3
R.5. VoronDesign change on GPLv3 -
https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-2/pull/96

--
Jacob Hrbek, In support of ukraine sovereignty #supportUkraine

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