Mark Rafn wrote: > > On Wed, 2 Aug 2000, Rene Mayrhofer wrote: > > > That is exactly what I mean: if somebody sells his knowledge, his time > > by selling support then he does not directly make profit with the ISO > > images that are distributed freely. He/she makes his profit because > > others use the freely distributed ISO images and he/she has the > > knowledge about configuring it. And that is totally ok. > > But if someone sells their knowledge about finding software, transferring > it to CDROM, and mailing the result, that's not ok? I really don't get > it. There is really not much knowledge needed to start a cd-burning program under windows, give it a file and press on "Burn". Compare this to the knowledge that somebody need to actively support a firewall setup at companies. > How about other distribution methods that could carry a fee? I once > considered putting together a priority FTP mirror co-op. Would it be > legal for me to make your ISO image available on a for-pay network or on a > pay-for-download basis? How about on a dvdrom or Jaz drive rather than > cdrom? What if it's bundled on those media with other software? How > about preinstalled on a system? That would also be not ok because you would use the "official" Gibraltar ISO images and sell them for profit. It does not make any difference if you burn it on CD or if you charge for downloading them. On a DVD or Jaz it won't work without modification so you would need to create new images with the packages from the current one (and this would be allowed, the content of the image is protected by the GPL). Only the layout of the ISO image could be protected, not the content. I did not think about preinstalled systems until now, the reason why I contacted debian-legal was because of my bad knowledge of licenses. > In any case, it's clearly not free if you can't freely distribute it, so > probably inappropriate for further discussion on debian-legal. I think that it is appropriate because it is based on Debian. I do not want to conflict with any of Debian's licenses (I have applied to become a maintainer a year ago), this is why I have contacted this list. The ISO images will not be *free as in speech*, but all of the software that was used to build them already is or will be (I am preparing Debian source packages at the moment - mkinitrd-cd is already in woody and it's one of the most important parts of the boot procedure).
I want to produce free, GPLed software that can be used to build embedded firewall systems (a whole system on a CD-ROM is kind of embedded), but I need some income to be able to do so. At the moment, I am trying to make money with selling pre-configured CD-ROMs that contain everything needed to build a router / firewall. As a service to home users I really want to provide the latest versions for *free as in beer* download. The question to all license experts is now: Can I take GPLed software (including my own GPLed packages specifically written for live, read-only filesystems) from Debian and publish ISO images with an license that restricts selling those particular ISO images (thus protecting the layout of them) ? I think that the question really is if the GPL contains some paragraphs that force every special layout of the combination of software packages to be distributed freely. The BSD license does not seem to demand this, since OpenBSD does not distribute their official ISO images for free. And I think that older RedHat releases also did not come with a free ISO image, only RedHat's own tools were distributed under the GPL. Can it be that I am allowed to not give away my ISO image of GPLed software when I distribute CD-ROMs, but that I can not say "I want to publish a version for free but with some restrictions on the redistribution of the ISO image" Could somebody answer these last questions please ? I really do not want to conflict with Debian's licenses. If I have no chance to distribute ISO images for free but with restrictions for commercially selling them, then I can not afford to publish them. I would have to take the ISO images off my server and would only be able to publish the software packages I write for constructing such systems (under the GPL). But that would be of no use to the users, these packages will only help experts building embedded systems. best greets, Rene
