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

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

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? :)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFBBKOXd90bcYOAWPYRAjpLAJ9DHNmdKmnJYIiW+xJZm4ou4XdGqwCeMd8o
ZVc2IkXk5gekeeEZzL6V/bw=
=+2Kh
-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- 

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

Relevant Pages

  • Re: GPL question, can open source code can be used to prop. platform?
    ... >> Minor correction. ... >> anyone but your customers. ... > does indeed require that you make the source code available to someone other ... Jim Richardson ...
    (comp.os.linux.networking)
  • Re: GPL question, can open source code can be used to prop. platform?
    ... In comp.os.linux.security Jim Richardson wrote: ... > Minor correction. ... > There is no requirement for you to make the source code available to ... > binaries available to) You just can't prohibit them from redistributing ...
    (comp.os.linux.networking)
  • Re: GPL question, can open source code can be used to prop. platform?
    ... In comp.os.linux.security Jim Richardson wrote: ... > Minor correction. ... > There is no requirement for you to make the source code available to ... > binaries available to) You just can't prohibit them from redistributing ...
    (comp.os.linux.security)
  • Re: Any good free cross Plattform lisps ?
    ... I was at the AI Lab as a Lisp Machine developer, ... Then after I left MIT, ... open source (that is, customers can see the source code and modify it, ... So they continued to provide the source code to MIT (and all their ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)
  • Re: developing tracking
    ... You can have an automated system (source code ... as to what the actual changes are, there's really no way to automate this ... ' MergeSingleWord "Customers" ... ' The above would use/create the templates in a dir called Customers ...
    (microsoft.public.access.formscoding)