On Tue, 30 Dec 2008, Måns Rullgård wrote: > Don Armstrong <d...@debian.org> writes: > > On Mon, 29 Dec 2008, Måns Rullgård wrote: > >> More precisely, Debian has the right to distribute such a work, but > >> chooses not to do so. > > > > If a work is GPLed and we do not have the complete source for the > > work, we cannot distribute it under the GPL. > > If the work as distributed *by the author* lacks something one might > call source, a recipient may still redistribute whatever he > received.
That's not correct, unless you're in a locality that has some form of the First Sale doctrine. Debian doesn't ever distribute under the first sale doctrine, and furthermore, Debian modifies everything that is distributed (even if just to package it), so it doesn't apply either. [And we certainly don't distribute in 1:1 ratio from the copies we obtain from original author.] Under GPL v3, when we convey a work in a non-source form, we must satisfy all of 6d. That requires making the Corresponding Source available, which we cannot. Under GPL v2, we distribute under 3(a), and that also requires distributing the corresponding machine-readable source code. If we don't have the corresponding source, we can't satisfy the GPL, so we cannot distribute (GPLv2 §4, GPLv3 §8). Don Armstrong -- Information wants to be free to kill again. -- Red Robot http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive.php?s=1372 http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-legal-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org