[nullsoldier]

As someone who's still learning about licenses. Does this mean that since they waited so long to release their OSS that they've been violating the terms of the licenses they've used to ship products for years (potentially)?

[ig1]

No, GPL only requires you to provide source-code to users on request. No general publication requirement.

[joncrocks]

I think you also have to provide details of the licence/licensed components alongside your distributed software, so that users know they can actually request the source-code.

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html - "And you must show them these terms so they know their rights"

[caw]

Most games have all of this info in the credits, and if you get a manual anymore, in there.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

Nintendo games all have manuals, they're just not physical. For example, if you put a 3DS Game Cart into a 3DS, there's a Manual button to bring up a nice HTML-style manual.

[fs111]

Yes, and those users are free to publish that code in any way they desire.

[comex]

Keep in mind this isn't a new page; I don't know the history of each package, but at least the Wii U browser WebCore distribution has been there since Wii U release.

[jordigh]

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WhatDoesWrittenOff...

If they were distributing the binaries without any indication that they were GPL'ed (i.e. no written offers), then yes, it would have been a violation. But it's not a violation any longer. They seem to be under compliance.