what I dont understand, is how being operated under a gnu license (GPL LGPL) etc would prevent simon making money out of the product, especially if you consider the Gnu LGPL iirc is usually used for libraries which he could if he wanted to be manipulative, release say 20% of the source under the Gnu LGPL which may allow you to connect and talk to the ecu but not do anything worthwhile. However this would be manipulative.

I have not seen the previous threads and so dont have a clue what was said in the past - However I was just pointint our a manipulation which could have occured, whilst still meeting what he said.

The other thing is, the GNU GPL License does not prevent you from selling the piece of software, as otherwise companies such as red hat would not be making such high levels of profit (Red Hat have an enterprise version of linux, a gnu GPL'd product), with turnover in september last year reported at $28.9.