Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au> writes: > We've established that you can't require someone who lets other people > use a program, but who doesn't distribute copies of it normally, to > give out copies of changes made to the source to any user who asks, > too, since that'd require you to keep source available permanently and > make it accessible, or maintain an out-of-band distribution mechanism, > which are all overly impractical. Which is to say: > > You should never be forced to give your source changes (and/or > rights to use/modify them) to people who merely use your program > (but don't already receive copies).
Is this established? I'm aware that some folks are arguing that position, but I didn't know it had been settled. Folks who are providing an ASP-style service generally are going to have big web servers and lots of bandwidth anyway; I'm not convinced that distribution of source would be a significant burden for them. Further, I see no reason that folks who haven't made modifications should have to host the source if it's available elsewhere. They can simply provide a link. So we're looking at the intersection of folks who have made changes and who have small servers/tight budgets. For people like this a license could require (for example) that either patches or source be made available for the currently running version within a months time. This gives them a chance to either try and get it submitted to upstream, or get a patchfile hosted someplace. (It also would give a business lead time, of course, but I'm not personally too concerned about that.) Since even these folks are (by definition) running a server of some sort, I really don't see how this is a horrible burden. A burden, yes, but not a horrible one. No different from having to provide source in addition to binaries on a web page (or on CD, or whatever). For purposes of the dissident test, dissidents could exchange floppies with patches on them occasionally. -- Jeremy Hankins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> PGP fingerprint: 748F 4D16 538E 75D6 8333 9E10 D212 B5ED 37D0 0A03