Poul-Henning Kamp, a Danish citizen, has a good heart and an obsession with time but his time is running out, thanks to inconsiderate manufacturing by the D-Link corporation.

Mr. Kamp, pro bono publicus, operates a server that helps many of the computers and networks in Denmark keep the correct hour. Without asking for permission, D-Link, maker of servers and routers has hard-encoded in many of its products several protocols which send their time checking packets through his server. Poul says 75-90% of the packets arriving at his server come via these D-link mechanisms.

Normally, he gets to operate his server space for free, as he’s performing a public service, provided usage is below a certain threshold. The D-Link products amp up the usage considerably, over his allowable amount. Since contacting them in November, spending 120 non-billable hours, wrangling with a D-Link lawyer, D-Link has not taken steps to fix the problem, and only offered a pittance of ‘hush money.’

The rest of the story, in full, gory, technical detail, he’s posted here as an open letter.

Shame and ignominy upon thee, D-Link. Shame! (Thanks to Matt!)

UPDATE: As is to be expected, there’s a pretty heated discussion about this at Digg. From them, we glean that if you’d like to express your opinion you can send an emails to D-Link CEO at sjoe@dlink.com or joe@dlink.com, or the vp of marketing at bmorse@dlink.com or call 1-800-326-1688.

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