FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact:
Miranda IM Project
Phone: +46-702-08 00 08
http://www.miranda-im.org
info@miranda-im.org


Miranda IM’s GNU GPL License Violated
Linköping, Sweden -- July 18, 2003 -- Four weeks ago it was discovered that a newly released instant messenger application, ZeeZ IM, was based on the Miranda IM v0.2 source code and was distributed in violation of the GNU GPL license. The Miranda IM developer team performed an analysis and discovered ten additional license violations in ZeeZ IM. The details on this analysis are available on http://miranda-icq.sourceforge.net/zeez-im/ .

ZeeZ IM was developed by the Australian/Russian company QuickRiver Ltd., for FireFly Lane Ltd. and Net Think Media S.L.

QuickRiver Ltd. was contacted four weeks ago, and stopped their distribution of ZeeZ IM a few days later. The spokesperson for QuickRiver Ltd., who did not give his name, has not responded to any further e-mails and has not provided any source code. QuickRiver has been given plenty of time to correct this, but have chosen to ignore our requests.

FireFly Lane Ltd./Net Think Media S.L was contacted one week ago. The reason why they could not be contacted earlier was the refusal of QuickRiver to give any details on their client, and the lack of contact information on zeez.com. According to a spokesperson for Net Media S.L., they were unaware of the license violations and took the site down as soon as they were informed about the situation.

The purpose of this press release is to make it publicly known that ZeeZ IM is derivative of Miranda IM in violation of several GNU GPL licenses and that all distribution of this application is illegal. The Miranda IM developer team see this kind of abuse as a very serious matter, and will continue to aggressively enforce the license. Appropriate actions will be taken against QuickRiver if their refusal to provide the complete source code for ZeeZ IM, as required in the GNU GPL license, continues.


Miranda IM is a non-profit open source project with the goal to develop a small, flexible and resource efficient multi protocol instant messenger for Windows. The project was started in early 2000 and all programming, design and support is done by volunteers.


For additional information on Miranda IM visit http://www.miranda-im.org
Contact: info@miranda-im.org
Phone: +46-702-08 00 08