On Thursday 06 August 2009 21:16:23 Nathan Ramella wrote: > The only way this would be a violation is if they refused to release > the GPL code for their GCC port or Linux source to their paying > customer. Thats it. Make a request, they'll honor it. It's their > business model. Linking against FlexLM doesn't require them to publish > FlexLM code either, just the code in GCC that links to it.
I disagree with this. The whole derivative work, GCC + FlexLM, is covered by the GPL. They must provide all the source code. > My observation of this business practice is that when you sell GPL > software to uneducated users, you can get away with as much as your > customer will let you. There's nothing wrong with that. Legally, no. Ethically that might be another story :-) You are of course require to let customers know that the product incorporates GPL code. > If someone wants to play on 'easy-mode' using DevRocket, they pay more than > someone who plays 'Advanced Mode' with the CodeSourcery-lite. You > substitute money for time investment and vise versa. > > It's unfair to accuse MV as GPL violators simply because they don't > fit the GPL model that you're familiar with. It becomes a GPL violation if, among other things, they fail to provide source code to customers who asked for it, or if they fail to inform customers that the product incorporates GPL code. > For the record, I'm not affiliated with Montavista or a customer of > theirs. OpenEmbedded here. But I do respect their effort to make money > while adhering to the GPL model. Nothing in the GPL says that you must > take a vow of poverty to participate. I completely agree. Many companies build business models around open-source code, and that's perfectly fine and desirable. I'd be quite surprised if MV, after so many years of activity in the open-source world, decided to violate the GPL in such a blatant way. Regards, Laurent Pinchart _______________________________________________ Davinci-linux-open-source mailing list [email protected] http://linux.davincidsp.com/mailman/listinfo/davinci-linux-open-source
