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Well:

A) it’s a cheap Chinese device, I’m certain some stolen open source code is the least of its infringements.

B) it’s licensed GPL, if they made no code changes (however doubtful) they didn’t really rip anything off.

They removed his copyright string from it

If the code is GPL and you are distributing the code in object form, then it’s okay to remove copyright notices as long as the work carried “prominent notices stating that it is released under [the GPL]”. GPL v3 section 5. [0]. Basically, that section says that if you’re distributing modified code, you’re not required to “keep intact all notices”. Id.

[0] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html

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