On 06/12/2012 02:44 PM, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:
On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 10:11:23AM +0900, zxq9 wrote:
On 06/12/2012 03:49 AM, Yasha Karant wrote:
Am I missing something here? I thought under the GPL as well as various
other open source licenses, TUV was required to make available the full
source from which the full non-encumbered distro could be built
That is correct.
For GPL-licensed code, anybody who receives TUV binary RPMs
is entitled to receive the corresponding SRPMs.
Since TUV is not giving us their binary RPMs, the GPL does not require that
they give us their SRPMs.
In other words, as general public, if you have a TUV Linux CD in your pocket,
the SRPMs should better be on it (and they are); if you do not have a TUV Linux
CD,
TUV owes you nothing. (Of course rules change if you are a Linux developer,
etc).
Code under other licenses is subject to other rules (RTFLs).
(On this list, are we really required to say "TUV" instead of "***censored***",
as if we were playing a 1984 double-speak live action game?)
As you understand the legal situation (presumably in the EU, USA, and UK
Commonwealth -- as on a wider scale, e. g., PRC or DPRK, things could be
considerably more complicated), if X licenses for fee TUV-EL N for some
N and platform (e.g., X86-64), X is then allowed under the GPL to repost
the source to those who have not licensed TUV-EL for fee?
Naturally, just as with SL and other similar distros (are we allowed to
mention these or does the censorship apply?), all trademarks and other
academic-style citations to the actual designated authors (often from
TUV) and author affililations (e.g., TUV) must be retained in the source
and any information that the source build commands do build, sans logos
or other "artistic" intellectual property.
These might seem to be unimportant points to a technical list --
however, one activity common throughout the open systems software
development and deployment fields (technical) is the (re)posting of
(derivative/modified) source, and it useful to understand the
constraints the various legal systems around the world impose upon such
activities. As an example, I routinely use such source in courses I
teach so that students will see and understand actual artifacts that
produce working instances, not just theoretical algorithms; I know from
colleagues at many institutions that such practice is commonplace.
