Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 5 Feb 2003 14:12:48 -0500 | From | Daniel Jacobowitz <> | Subject | Re: Monta Vista software license terms |
| |
On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 02:02:38PM -0500, Nilmoni Deb wrote: > > On 5 Feb 2003, Alan Cox wrote: > > > On Wed, 2003-02-05 at 11:58, Nilmoni Deb wrote: > > > Note that your obligation is strictly to the recipients of binaries > > > (i.e., your customers). You have no responsibility to the "community" at > > > large." > > > > This is correct. Its actually very important. A lot of GPL software is > > created by a small company for another. It would be completely unfair > > for that small company to be expected to ship stuff to everyone. Their > > customer may choose to but then they must distribute sources and so in > > turn. > > While one issue stands resolved (that a vendor complying with clause 3a of > GPL 2.0 does not have to comply with 3b), the GPL may have been > misprepresented by MontaVista, as per the opinion of a FSF member (Dave > Turner via RT <license-violation@fsf.org>): > > -------- EXCERPT STARTS --------- > > > Note that your obligation is strictly to the recipients of binaries > > (i.e., your customers). You have no responsibility to the "community" at > > large." > > > > > > Its the last sentence that is of concern. Does this mean no 3rd > > party (who is not a customer) can get the GPL source code part of their > > products ? > > Actually, they're wrong -- if they choose (3)(b), their offer must be > open to all third parties. And they're wrong about who their > "obligation" is to -- legally speaking, their license comes from the > copyright holder. > > -------- EXCERPT ENDS --------- > > > Montavista feed a fair bit of stuff back into the kernel, especially at > > the mips end of the universe.
We don't deal with 3(b), actually. All our binary distributions include source, a la 3(a).
It's generally considered polite to discuss your concerns with whoever you're concerned with, instead of attempting to report them and rouse public reaction, you know.
-- Daniel Jacobowitz MontaVista Software Debian GNU/Linux Developer - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |