A little late in the reply, but...
John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
--snip of GNU General Public License Version 2, Section 2--
Wrong secton. You want section 3:
Section 3 refers to Sections 1 and 2. So actually, Sections 1 - 3 are important.
3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
customarily used for software interchange; or,
c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
received the program in object code or executable form with such
an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
Note the ``one of the following''.
Note, that all subsections refer to Sections 1 and 2.
If you distibrute the source along with the object code, you are good
and never need to bother with giving any J Random User any source code
if they come
begging.
Yes you do. Section 3 stipulates that distribution is to be provided under the
terms of Sections 1 and 2. So, you must make available the source code to any
random user for a minimum of three (3) years.
If you go the 3.b route, you need to keep a copy of the source for at
least three years (or however long you make your written offer good for)
for any person that asks for it.
In short: Do you have to give the source to anyone who asks?
The answer is ``maybe.'' If you always keep the source with the object
code (separate tarball on same FTP server is sufficient) then no. If you
give a written offer, then yes. If you pass on a written offer, then you
are not the copyright holder.
There you go. Plain English.
In short, you have to provide a mechanism to retrieve the source to anyone who
asks for a minimum of three (3) years after you distribute the Program, whether
you got it as a binary or not. If you are re-distributing the object code that
you got from someone else under Section 3.b, then the other party is obligated
to provide the source for three (3) years, and you're obligated to tell the user
where to get it.
In the case of Red Hat (which is mentioned in another e-mail), the portions of
RHEL that fall under the GPL all have several different mechanisms whereby one
can get the source code.
PGA
--
Paul G. Allen
Owner, Sr. Engineer, Security Specialist
Random Logic/Dream Park
www.randomlogic.com
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
