On Tuesday 30 December 2003 02:35, Brian Luerssen wrote: > Unless they have modified gpl sourcecode, at which point they are obligated > (i think..) to release their changes/improvements back to the world.
To the best of my knowledge (IANAL), if the source is distributed with the product at the time, the source code only has to be made available to the recipients of the GPLed binairies in question. They (the recipients) of course are free to make such source available to 'the world' at large - the GPL gives them that right. It is generally considered good form for the person/company releasing the binaries to make the code available to 'the world' at large via the internet, but section 3 of the GPL does *not* explicity require this. Read section 3 of the GPL for further details. :-) As many have noticed, it is also common practice to create and distribute a 'system' Foo, based on program A (released under the GPL) and program B (release under a propriatary license). This then creates a system that cannot be redistributed as a whole, although certain components can. Mitel does this with SME, and SmoothWall does this. So do quite a few Linux distro's. This is presumable what Richard Morrell meant when he said "SmoothWall corporate products take GPL code and make it proprietary", since the literal intepretation of that sentance is clearly false. A 'fine line' can occur since it is not always clear at what point program B becomes a derived work of program A, and thus ceases to be proprietary and instead falls under the GPL. The point is that there is nothing in the GPL the prohibits the creation of proprietary systems based on GPLed components in this way, although some care does need to be taken, due to (occasionally) fuzzy nature of deciding when something is a 'derived work'. Personally, I think the SME team at Mitel have gone to great lenghts to comply both with the black-letter requirements of the GPL, and its spirit. That being said, I am even happier that E-Smith is now being passed over to the development community at large. Cheers, Rasjid. -- Rasjid Wilcox Canberra, Australia (UTC +10 hrs) http://www.openminddev.net -- Please report bugs to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] (only) to discuss security issues Support for registered customers and partners to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Searchable archive at http://www.mail-archive.com/devinfo%40lists.e-smith.org
