If you care deeply enough - Exercise your rights under GPL to request a copy...
He's obligated to provide all changes to the upstream code that he's made - his own works, that which doesn't modify GPL licensed code, he can claim copyright*, and... license it however he wants within the rights given to him by GPLv3 - but he still needs to be compliant with GPLv3.
* even within GPLv3, he can claim copyright, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have to release those changes.
I have, numerous times both publicly in these threads and via PM. He either refuses to answer, or makes an excuse about how he cannot upload the source code due to "lack of time".
EDIT: Just to expand on this - I do
not care what hggomes does with his fork. While I disagree with boosting the TX power beyond FCC limits - firmware forks like these are the reason the FCC is/was looking to force manufacturers to lock down routers entirely - if that is his choice to do so, it is his and his alone. I do
not care where or how or to whom his fork is distributed. I
do care that the code is licensed under GPL, and therefore he
must release accompanying source code (or make it available to those who request it) for
every release he makes. The fact that he continues to work on the fork, placing seemingly significant time towards it but cannot find the mere minutes to upload the source code somewhere - either to GitHub or by archiving his development folder and uploading it - raises
deep red flags about what additional code is in the firmware. This fork is 8MB larger than Merlin's, yet all hggomes claims to do is unlock the ability to increase the transmit power past Asus' limits...where does the 8MB come from? hggomes refuses to answer that question.
If you want to assume the risk and run this firmware on your router, by all means do. It is your router and I do not control what you install on it. However, hggomes has an obligation laid out by the license he explicitly agreed to by forking the firmware and it is
not a reasonable expectation to not receive it.
I will, once again for the umpteenth time, formally request
@hggomes to provide the members of this forum with a complete source code package through any acceptable means (whether it be git or a tarball or
whatever) for his latest release, and to continue to provide these source code releases alongside his binary ones.
I do not believe anyone could receive this as an unfair request. It is a right under the GPL to ask for the source code, and it
must, in accordance to the license agreement, be distributed upon request.