SDR# JUST STOP!

[air-scan]

prog, the developer of SDR# sent a message on airspy groups io demanding those who chose to pirate the SDR# dll's to STOP! The community that cares also demand those to STOP pirating the SDR# dll's to STOP! If you don't STOP we lose the availability of SDR# as we know it. He has limited the distribution to selected partners and made it proprietary to specific hardware before. If this happens you pirates have yourself to blame. SDR# dll's are NOT open-source!!

If you don't like this thread then tough!

 

[Reconrider]

Didn't know you would get anything more from sdrsharp. I thought the program was full and not an unlimited trial.

What does the 'full' program give you?

Also how do you get the paid dll program stuff?

 

[NebraskaCoder]

I'm assuming people are just reverse engineering the dlls back into .NET/C#?

 

[slicerwizard]

Which DLLs is he concerned about? What are the pirates doing with them / using them for?

 

[belvdr]

Here's the thread, in case anyone's interested.

airspy@groups.io | If you like SDR#, Don't Pirate SDR#

groups.io

 

[KC1UA]

I believe what is happening is this: A while back someone created or modified a .dll that allowed third party receivers not supported by SDR# to be used. The idea is to copy the receiver's ext-io.dll file into the SDR# folder along with this modified .dll. In this manner receivers like the SDRPlay models and in my case the Icom IC-R8600 can be used with SDR#.

Not understanding the legalities of all of this stuff, I went ahead and joyfully used the 8600 with it; it is a great combination but I am going to sadly stop doing so and find another solution.

I'll close by saying that when people are creating these .dll files so other receivers can use SDR#, it is a testament to that software. As I have stated in many places many times, I believe it is THE best VHF and above software due to a combination of its stability and the many plug-ins that have been created for it and that therefore there is a "demand" for it to work with other devices. I wish a legal solution could be reached. I understand that Youssef and company are also the creators of the Airspy SDR's, which of course SDR# is primarily written for. Perhaps he should simply minimize the use of the software to just those devices and perhaps the RTL dongles.

 

[belvdr]

I believe what is happening is this: A while back someone created or modified a .dll that allowed third party receivers not supported by SDR# to be used. The idea is to copy the receiver's ext-io.dll file into the SDR# folder along with this modified .dll. In this manner receivers like the SDRPlay models and in my case the Icom IC-R8600 can be used with SDR#.

Not understanding the legalities of all of this stuff, I went ahead and joyfully used the 8600 with it; it is a great combination but I am going to sadly stop doing so and find another solution.

I'll close by saying that when people are creating these .dll files so other receivers can use SDR#, it is a testament to that software. As I have stated in many places many times, I believe it is THE best VHF and above software due to a combination of its stability and the many plug-ins that have been created for it and that therefore there is a "demand" for it to work with other devices. I wish a legal solution could be reached. I understand that Youssef and company are also the creators of the Airspy SDR's, which of course SDR# is primarily written for. Perhaps he should simply minimize the use of the software to just those devices and perhaps the RTL dongles.

You got more out of that thread than I did. Reading the author's last post, I was confused by what he meant:

- Parts of that DSP and software is open source (the drivers + important DSP post-processing)
- The other part is maintained by a select few who know what they are doing. We tried to involve more people into the party, but this ended up in a big mess from VB button colorizers whose entry ticket to hardcore DSP has become cheap.

Now plug the free-riders in the last two steps in any imaginable way, and you get an idea how things work in the real world.
I hope this post will answer most of the questions.

Your explanation makes sense.

 

[morfis]

I believe what is happening is this: A while back someone created or modified a .dll that allowed third party receivers not supported by SDR# to be used. The idea is to copy the receiver's ext-io.dll file into the SDR# folder along with this modified .dll. In this manner receivers like the SDRPlay models and in my case the Icom IC-R8600 can be used with SDR#.

IF that is the cause of the tantrum I fail to see why it should be. Icom aren't selling or advertising a dll (nor are AoR or Analog Devices etc.). No-one seems to be selling a modified dll or in any other way taking income from prog. None of these people are flogging pirated software. If anything it means there will be more users of the original software and his ego gets a good healthy massage.

Earlier on in the life of sdsharp it was open source. Prog decided to remove that after someone effectively brought out a closed source version of the open source code and with a new name. That is clearly wrong on many levels.
Perhaps the same has happened again except by reverse engineering the now closed-source code?

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

There is a long history to this and there was discussion on RR years ago. The developers of SDRsharp are also involved in Airspy. They got upset that another commercial product (SDRplay) could use SDRsharp and took steps to lock SDRsharp down. RTL-SDR and some other products are not viewed as competition. The SDRsharp developers said changing to a later .net library caused them to drop ExtIO support. Since someone has managed to put it back, it shows the real purpose was to prevent use of other commercial products. So the problem is not with usage with the Icom 8600, the problem is now there is a backdoor way for other commercial products to use SDRsharp.

Youssef is very protective of his code, but does not seem to understand licensing. I think he is using the wrong license for SDRsharp. The Microsoft license used is a reference license, which is meant for C# assemblies. It allows third-party dlls to use SDRSharp code, so it is not against the license to develop a third-party dll for SDRSharp that adds ExtIO support, as long as you do not modify and distribute other's code. Youssef even posted a take down notice to a website that hosted a C++ SDR project unrelated to SDRsharp.

I was called a pirate even for discussing legal ways to use the open source code. So I have made it a point not to buy any Airspy products.

73 Eric

 

[belvdr]

prog, the developer of SDR# sent a message on airspy groups io demanding those who chose to pirate the SDR# dll's to STOP! The community that cares also demand those to STOP pirating the SDR# dll's to STOP! If you don't STOP we lose the availability of SDR# as we know it. He has limited the distribution to selected partners and made it proprietary to specific hardware before. If this happens you pirates have yourself to blame. SDR# dll's are NOT open-source!!

If you don't like this thread then tough!

If what @EricCottrell says is true, then it seems if you're using SDR# on anything than what Youssef supports, you're a pirate. That also implies that Youssef is simply complaining as he does not want to put more work into blocking ExtIO support.

It's funny though, because AirSpy supplies ExtIO DLLs so you can use their product with other software packages.

 

[thewraith2008]

Would be interesting to know more details about this.
Is the issue about clone Airspy hardware working with SDR# via a dodgy frontend? (dll)
Or using any 'non approved' hardware with SDR#.
Is it about that sdrsharper or what ever it's called.


SDR# has a frontend and plug-in API interfaces.
The frontend API is supposed to allow for development of an interface for SDR# to talk to any non airspy hardware.
No funny business was required, the API was made to allow this type of thing to be developed.
Then SDR# decided to block all but a select whitelist of hardware. Bit of a shame really but it is was it is.
In some part you can still develop a SDR# frontend for any hardware but none of the SDR# plug-ins will work with it.

 

[slicerwizard]

So tldr, ssdd...

 

[eorange]

I love tasty karma. Just look at how much open source software thrives here (and everywhere else in the world). prog gets what he deserves.

 

[lwvmobile]

Well, after reading all that, I'm still confused. Its just not a very good look for those guys, ranting like that. In the one post, he suggest he is taking some form of legal action, and if that's true, seems like the first piece of advice you get when taking legal steps is to STFU and keep your lips zipped.

Finally, whoever writes the pirated dlls: Don't be someone else's fool. The IP law is not forgiving and a big dossier is being built. We know who you are.

 

[waterbwuk]

This sounds like a developer problem, not an end user problem. Don't want people doing unintended stuff with your software? Do a better job at locking it down.

 

[silberj]

Or use better software. Lot's of other stuff that has outpaced sdsharp out there.

 

[a417]

This sounds like a developer problem, not an end user problem. Don't want people doing unintended stuff with your software? Do a better job at locking it down.

..and do a better job at licensing.

 

[air-scan]

Hello,

There is a long history to this and there was discussion on RR years ago. The developers of SDRsharp are also involved in Airspy. They got upset that another commercial product (SDRplay) could use SDRsharp and took steps to lock SDRsharp down. RTL-SDR and some other products are not viewed as competition. The SDRsharp developers said changing to a later .net library caused them to drop ExtIO support. Since someone has managed to put it back, it shows the real purpose was to prevent use of other commercial products. So the problem is not with usage with the Icom 8600, the problem is now there is a backdoor way for other commercial products to use SDRsharp.

Youssef is very protective of his code, but does not seem to understand licensing. I think he is using the wrong license for SDRsharp. The Microsoft license used is a reference license, which is meant for C# assemblies. It allows third-party dlls to use SDRSharp code, so it is not against the license to develop a third-party dll for SDRSharp that adds ExtIO support, as long as you do not modify and distribute other's code. Youssef even posted a take down notice to a website that hosted a C++ SDR project unrelated to SDRsharp.

I was called a pirate even for discussing legal ways to use the open source code. So I have made it a point not to buy any Airspy products.

73 Eric

Thanks for that insight. Yes he should be using the appropriate licensing. Sounds like he is piggybacking someone else's license. That was cold of him to post that takedown notice. I probably shouldn't have posted this thread now that I know a bit more. C++ isn't his to be issuing takedown notices. It wouldn't hold up in court anyhow. Many many programs that are unrelated that use C++ that may look like his coding still doesn't make it his own because it's a widely and common used programming language.

 

[lwvmobile]

I just looked at this whole thing again, for giggles at this point really, and I still can't figure out how writing a DLL file for a piece of software is equal to piracy. "Hardware Piracy" no less. You wouldn't download a car.

Literally, there is ZERO modification to his software. The DLL is written presumably independent of the software he has written and when placed in the same directory it allows it to use additional hardware. Which, I kind of find ironic because in order to use rtl dongles in SDR#, the install-rtlsdr bat file downloads the zadig driver and rtlsdr.dll file from Osmocom to allow his software to use an RTL dongle. I also don't see him ranting about 'community plugins' which essentially operate the same way presumably.

To be honest, this really just sounds like is a tantrum due to low hardware sales.

I mean, then again, I don't follow SDR# or use it, or own any Airspy devices for that matter. Maybe he should make a EULA that spells out that his software can only be used in tandum with certain hardware, or charge for the software and create a license key model, or always online DRM

 

[eorange]

To be honest, this really just sounds like is a tantrum due to low hardware sales.

That was my first thought too, under the high-handed facade of 'piracy', which is his favorite word to toss around when it's time to swat flies. It's laughable he'd try to limit use of SDR# as retribution.