What I mean by GPL is that the manufacturer of the phone is following copyright law and releasing all the source code that they are required to release. If the license for a piece of software they are using (including things like the modem firmware) doesn't require them to publish the source code, that's fine.

Its when a company is required by the license to publish source code (say GPL for the Linux kernel) but doesn't public that required source code (or that publishes source code that doesn't match the binaries they are shipping) that I get annoyed.

I am saying that I refuse to buy a phone from a company who profits off \copyright violations by shipping binaries (Linux kernel and otherwise) and not releasing the source code that the license for those binaries requires them to release. I would be saying exactly the same thing if a manufacturer was including a copy of the latest Star Wars film on a device without permission from Disney and profiting off copyright violations that way.

Its one of my principles that I wont support companies who profit off copyright violation (among other reasons why I have a list of companies I refuse to do business with)