Re: GPL question, can open source code can be used to prop. platform?

From: Jim Richardson (warlock_at_eskimo.com)
Date: 07/26/04 

Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 06:30:21 GMT

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On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 00:25:52 -0400,
 Lew Pitcher <lpitcher@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> Jim Richardson wrote:
>> On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 15:06:45 -0400,
>> Lew Pitcher <Lew.Pitcher@td.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>Santa wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
>>>>>platform
>>>>
>>>>Yes.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>and can be sold in for commercial use?.
>>>>
>>>>Yes, but you have to GPL licence any modifications you make to GPL code,
>>>>and provide a means by which your customers (and any third party) may
>>>>obtain the source code of those changes. You may only charge a
>>>>reasonable copying fee for any source code distributed (in other words,
>>>>no $1M source code fees).
>>>>
>>
>>
>> Minor correction.
>>
>> There is no requirement for you to make the source code available to
>> anyone but your customers. (or rather, the folks who you make the
>> binaries available to) You just can't prohibit them from redistributing
>> it :)
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>
>
> GPL v2 Clause 3 states (in part):
>
> 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under
> Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections
> 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
>
> ...
>
> * b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years,
> to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of
> physically performing source distribution, a complete
> machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
> distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
> customarily used for software interchange; or,
>
> - From the phrase "any third party" in clause 3b, it seems to me that the GPL
> does indeed require that you make the source code available to someone other
> than your direct customers. This seems explicitly to cover the condition where
> your customer redistributes your GPLed code.
>
>

I stand corrected, thanks. Is this something that changed with v2.0? or
have I been out of touch since the beginning? :)

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-- 
Jim Richardson     http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
"The Secret of Zen lies in just two words: Not Always So.."
- Shunryu Suzuki

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