DD-WRT – An affront to the good will of the F/OSS community       
It is hard to persuade a man of something when his income
depends on him not being persuaded.  –todo: quote from?

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DISCLAIMER: The statements here reflect my
own personal observations and opinions. I encourage the reader to verify these
assertions for himself or herself. Everything written here can be easily
confirmed by the reader through an analysis of the DD-WRT web site, DD-WRT
source code, DD-WRT forums, and admissions of Brainslayer and other DD-WRT
affiliates.

For a long time now I’ve been working to add value to DD-WRT. I supported the
project in a number of ways, including developing the technology to flash v5
series ‘micro’ routers and the Firmware Modification Kit. Both these
technologies, particularly the former, have greatly increased DD-WRT’s user base.

In the last few months I started to notice some disturbing trends in the DD-WRT development. You can
see these trends yourself, you don’t have to look hard. This article has the
intention of introducing the reader to what DD-WRT is, how it came to be, and
why I think the direction of development is very wrong. You may think otherwise,
but it is important that the FACTS be heard, instead of suppressed.

How DD-WRT came to be

The DD-WRT firmware was originally a fork of Sveasoft’s firmware. It came about because
Sveasoft started placing restrictions on their supposed open-source firmware in
an attempt to generate revenue. Major complaints about Sveasoft are summarized
below:

• Sveasoft started charging for their GPL firmwares (nothing
  inherently wrong with this, as unpopular as it may be).
• Sveasoft started trying to prevent distribution of their source
  code, even to paying customers (illegal since their firmware is based on
  GPL code).
• Sveasoft placed anti-piracy mechanisms in the firmware to prevent
  redistribution, something that would not have been illegal since their
  project is GPL.
• Sveasoft started a campaign of banning from their forums anyone who
  spoke remotely critical of their firmware or merely mentioned
  alternatives, even in OTHER forums than their own.

Sveasoft got to this shameful state because the focus of the project shifted
from helping the community and having fun to pure revenue generation. Even if a
project has noble intentions, once profit is the motivating factor, natural
forces propel the project into a commercial direction, which is often directly in
contrast to the free open-source community-driven philosophy. Again,
nothing inherently wrong with this – as long as it is done right and without
violating GPL licenses.

So, in short DD-WRT was born because Sveasoft went ‘commercial’ and
started trying to restrict technology instead of advance it.

What is DD-WRT? – Mostly the work of others

DD-WRT is an open-source project built upon the works of Linux, Broadcom,
Linksys, OpenWrt, Busybox, and countless other contributors.
Probably far less than 1% of the code has been authored by Brainslayer. In fact, I would estimate the actual authorship of code
somewhere between 0.01% and 0.10% ,
most all of which is modifications to the GPL code of others, not brand new
libraries and applications.

For instance, the most major development of DD-WRT is extensions to the HTTP
management console. These were all done on top of the existing code he forked
from Sveasoft, which was forked from Linksys, who forked it from someone else.
DD-WRT’s code is NOT separate and distinct, rather it is tightly integrated,
direct modifications to existing code. This hasn’t stopped DD-WRT from trying to
make their extensions to the web interface suddenly
non-GPL!

Consider it for yourself. The linux kernel, drivers, and all the common
packages you see on most any linux distribution make up the vast majority of
DD-WRT, not Brainslayer’s few additions. Furthermore, it isn’t just him who has
extended the code. When DD-WRT was thought to have altruistic motives, many
developers joined the cause. If there is any reluctance to accept the fact that
almost all the code is written by others, it is simple arrogance — and, yes,
surprisingly there is a denial of this fact. If you aren’t a developer, don’t
take my word for it — ask someone you really trust how much they think
of DD-WRT is original code.

Instead of giving credit where credit is due, Brainslayer has
changed strings in the software to in an attempt to hide the
true authors of programs simply because he, or someone, changed a handful of
lines of code amongst tens of thousands. Consider
Busybox, which is the single component
responsible for implementing almost all core system utilities and the system
shell. Its shell startup message was changed in DD-WRT to downplay the
contributions of the numerous developers of Busybox from all over the world:

BusyBox v1.01
(2006.05.16-18:12+0000) Built-in
shell (ash)

AND NOW IT READS:

Now DD-WRT VeryBusyBox v1.01 (2006.05.16-18:12+0000)
Built-in shell (ash)

Furthermore, DD-WRT at one point did give sparse credit to a handful of
contributors. This was later removed as Brainslayer decided more and more of the
code was ‘his’. Although this lack of attribution may be offensive to some, it is not
illegal. The fact that DD-WRT is so much the work of others is a critical part
of the argument that follows below.

DD-WRT: Profit in sight

Brainslayer received many donations from users around the world in support of
‘his’ free open-source project. Many developers came to give contributions –
advancing the project farther than Brainslayer could have ever done himself. The
community loved DD-WRT.

After a while, Brainslayer realized that he could make money with DD-WRT. The
potential of making big money overshadowed the original purpose of the project,
and he started to formulate a plan. Now, we all want to make money, there is nothing
inherently wrong with
that. Although he would be turning his back on his ‘base’ to go commercial, we
can not fault him for wanting to make money. We can, however, fault him for how
he is going about it. Violating GPL licenses, removing credits, and soliciting
donations under the pretense of being a free open-source project is NOT
acceptable.

At first, he didn’t want to admit even to himself his commercial aspirations.
Little things were done, which were clearly the start of a slide down a very
slippery slope. A few of these early actions are below, in order of LEAST
egregious to MOST egregious.

• DD-WRT Web UI protected against modification
  After development of the Firmware Modification Kit by third-party
  developers (namely me), Brainslayer was afraid someone might take the
  free/open-source code and re-brand it, much like he did. He
  therefore encrypted the web UI, making it very difficult to change with
  the firmware modification kit, and further at first ‘forgot’ to distribute with
  the source code the component that encrypts the web UI. Whether or not
  DD-WRT can fully be rebuilt from its publicly available source code is
  unknown at this point. The build root is intentionally kept hard to use.
  Remember, DD-WRT is mostly NOT his code and is all GPL, this is a direct
  offense to those whose code he uses freely. It’s ok for HIM to sell
  other people’s code, but not for others to sell HIS.
• DD-WRT Free for home use only
  Adding this ILLEGAL statement to DD-WRT clearly showed the
  intentions of the author. Brainslayer has no right to restrict where his
  GPL derivative works are allowed to be used.
  Again, DD-WRT’s code is not stand-alone,  dynamically linked
  extensions. Instead, all major components are built upon the code that
  was originally there (i.e. the original Linksys http management
  console). Update: He removed this text from the license in v23 SP1,
  probably because he discovered it to be illegal.
  See Appendix A for a snippet of the license text in DD-WRT v23.
• DD-WRT ‘Special Edition’ for sale: approx.
  $17-$22 USD
  This special edition of DD-WRT offers more features than the ‘free’
  version of DD-WRT. Call it what you want, but this is the full
  edition of DD-WRT and the free edition is a crippled
  counterpart. Where do you think new features will go first in the
  future? The free version or the ‘special edition’ version? In order to
  protect revenue, Brainslayer will feel increasingly compelled to add
  exclusive features to the special edition, add anti-copying mechanisms,
  and illegally protect GPL code.
  That is what happens when paying your bills is dependent on how
  many sales you make. He admits to this very fact on the DD-WRT store
  page that sells the ‘special edition’: “we will additional features
  in this version in future too.” (reference)  You’ll find this ‘special edition’ of DD-WRT for
  sale in the
  DD-WRT store right now.
• DD-WRT x86 Edition license required
  If you want a license to use the x86 edition at home you must
  request one nicely from Brainslayer and hope he responds, otherwise you
  must purchase a license. No unlicensed copies will exist! This version
  DOES HAVE copy protections. You can go see for yourself, or just ask
  Brainslayer and he’ll admit it.

If by now you don’t see that DD-WRT is a commercial project, not a
F/OSS project, then you need to re-read the above.

When profit becomes a primary motivator, there are almost irresistible
pressures to let the pursuit of profit guide all decisions in the project.
Things like restricting distribution of GPL source code, intentional
obfuscation of source code, anti-copy mechanisms, and suppression of competing
technological advances have real advantages when the
goal is to make money. If DD-WRT weren’t a GPL’d project, these issues
wouldn’t exist..  but it is.

DD-WRT: Suppressing criticism (or protecting revenue)

When I voiced my concern about profit becoming a primary motivator and the
irresistible pressure to commercialize that comes with it, I was treated as if I
ran over Brainslayer’s dog. So, I just went elsewhere and
started work on a community-driven multi-developer project with built-in
protections against having the project itself go commercial since I knew market
forces are hard to resist.

Later, I heard Brainslayer said I was ‘exiled’ from the DD-WRT community, as
if because I had a different opinion I was run off and ridiculed. It was clear
his ego was getting out of control at this point. No big deal, I let it slide.

A few weeks later during a discussion in the DD-WRT forums about the Tomato
firmware, I posted a message that mentioned reasonable rationale for using
competing products. It was CENSORED despite clearly inflammatory posts
being left in place, further demonstrating that Brainslayer is about
protection of revenue and suppression of competing technologies.

After it was clear to Brainslayer that I might spread the truth about his
plans to commercialize the project, he sought to find a way to ban me from the
forums. Since I did not actually post in the forums after this, it
was not easy for him. Finally, I made a single topic change on the
#dd-wrt channel on irc which gave him a ‘reason’ to ban me. After that, I
changed it a couple more times the next day for fun, but always clearly showing
who changed it.

Here is Brainslayer’s post explaining what I supposedly did to get banned
from the forums. He made this post publicly for whatever reason.

Facts:

1. Yea, I did change the IRC channel topic ONCE prior to being
   banned from the forums, and made it clear I was the one who changed the
   topic (see log he gives above). I was really
   just joking, though DD-WRT is quite obviously a commercial operation since
   they are out to make money. Besides, what happens on the apparently
   unofficial and unmoderated #dd-wrt irc channel has nothing to
   do with the forum. After he banned me, I went ahead and changed the topic
   again to ‘DD-WRT full edition – only $19.95′. The truth is that the
   special edition is about 20 euros in Europe, or about $22 in the US.
2. I DID NOT set the topic so that it appeared to be written by
   BrainSlayer, someone else did that.
3. I have NEVER posted bogus information in the forums and haven’t
   even posted anything in over a month (at least). Yet he is afraid I ‘might’
   so preemptively bans me. Perhaps he is afraid I will do something else? Like
   spread the truth?
4. There have been completely baseless accusations that I am trying
   to advertise for my own project. First, it’s not my project, and, second, I
   do not have any financial interests in its success (unlike Brainslayer and
   DD-WRT). Lastly, I never mentioned the X-Wrt project and it was Brainslayer
   who made the public announcement about me being banned for simply setting a
   topic saying DD-WRT was commercial (which it is).

DD-WRT: Sliding down the slippery slope…

So, today the slide towards commercializing continues unabated. That is
DD-WRT’s right, but let us FORCE them to do it ethically and within the
guidelines of the GPL code they have based their project on. They are NOT
ALLOWED by the GPL license to take someone else’s code and claim it as their
own, put new restrictions on its use, or not distribute the modified sources.

Granted, what DD-WRT does or doesn’t do isn’t that important in the grand
scheme of things, but I feel users should be
AWARE of what is going on, specifically those users who donate to DD-WRT
under the false pretense of it being a free open-source project.

Here are my recommendations:

1. DO NOT DONATE TO DD-WRT. It now sells firmwares, donating to them
   would be like donating to any commercial software company.
2. DEMAND BUILD-ABLE SOURCE CODE. The entire source code should and
   MUST be build-able without having to ask the author to kindly include
   missing pieces.
3. DEMAND SUPPORT. Now that DD-WRT is in the business of making
   money, they are also RESPONSIBLE to provide support they currently DO NOT
   provide. Also, they are more liable for all the routers they brick.
4. SPREAD THE TRUTH. One merely has to point to the
   DD-WRT Store. Don’t listen
   to their spin, look at what they are doing.
5. ALTERNATIVES SHOULD BE USED. Instead of encouraging users to find
   the firmware best for them, Brainslayer has started a campaign of
   suppressing information about firmwares that might hurt his revenue. There
   are plenty of alternatives, but to remain neutral I will leave it up to
   google.

 

You decide. Don’t listen to me, look for yourself. It
doesn’t take much effort to verify assertions made here.

 - db90h

P.S. An addendum

This article was written a very long time ago, back when I was invovled in embedded
F/OSS. Since its publication, DD-WRT has grown completely commercial – as I predicted.
I have no problem with this, and I certainly understand the need to generate some revenue from
F/OSS. Whether or not they are currently violating any GPL licensing,
I do not know.. nor do I care anymore. This page WILL be removed in time..
I recommend checking out the Tomato, OpenWrt, and X-Wrt firmwares.

Appendix A

LICENSE TEXT
FROM v23 (sp0):

the use of the “NON GPL Parts” of this firmware and the distributed source is permitted without any charge for PRIVATE USE ONLY unless other rights are granted by the firmware author only. 26.8.2005 Sebastian Gottschall / Blueline AG the following features are tagged as NON-GPL Webinterface   <– *** ILLEGAL, THIS IS A GPL DERIVATIVE WORK!! *** macupd (mac update daemon for rflow collector) the configuration scripts and definitions within /etc/config