OpenNMS vs. Nethinks MONET 2.0

Posted on by tarus

[UPDATE: It appears that Nethinks is using OpenNMS well within the boundaries of the license]

Today, Klaus Thielking-Riechert, one of our community members, sent me a link to an interesting story on the Network Computing (Germany) website.

It was on a product called MONET 2.0 by Nethinks GmbH. Their product looks really good. I especially like the user interface. It looks very familiar. For example, here is their front page:


(image taken from here)

and here’s one from OpenNMS:

The article talks about the device page as well, check it out:


(image taken from here)

and here’s one from OpenNMS:

Look familiar?

(sigh)

Now, I’m no lawyer and I don’t read German very well, so I’m not quite sure that they are in violation of any license. If they are just supplying this application over the web to their clients, then I don’t believe that violates the GPL.

However, they have including a map:


(image taken from here)

which means they have changed the code, so if they are selling this application then there is a probable GPL violation.

Look, we produce OpenNMS in the hopes that someone finds it useful. The only thing we ask is for a little recognition. If you like it, tell a friend. Send us a postcard. But please acknowledge the work of the community, especially if you rebadge it and, in the case of Nethinks, put your copyright on it. I may not be required but it is the right thing to do.

If Nethinks is trying to commercialize the software in violation of the license, then we will take whatever steps are necessary to correct it. In any case they are presenting a lot of our work as their own, and that’s just wrong.

10 thoughts on “OpenNMS vs. Nethinks MONET 2.0”

  3. This should be dealt with the Irish way. In the words of King Bono of ireland: “Achtung Baby!”.

    -A 🙂

  4. hmmm… Maybe its the other way around!?! Methinks OpenNMS took Nethinks’ code? 😉

    Just kidding Tarus… funny to see that app up with your GUI and what not.

  5. Yeah, it is *funny*.

    (grin)

    Let me stress that I’m not sure they are doing anything wrong. But I can’t help but wonder what a line in that article like:

    “MONET is built on the open source OpenNMS platform which we felt was the most robust and scalable solution on which to build our services product”

    would have meant to the project. Wouldn’t have cost them anything, although it would have looked odd being the only sentence in English.

    (grin)

  8. @elyograg: I am not at liberty to talk about pending litigation. When there is news, it’ll be posted here first.

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