[CLUE-Tech] GPL loopholes

[Angelo Bertolli]

Actually one thing I'm not clear on:  can a friend copy any GPL software 
legally?  I always thought that it was legal to copy source, but not 
necessarily binaries.  And then there is the matter of Red Hat not 
wanting others to distribute things with their logos and trademarks... 
so is it legal to make a copy of a Red Hat distro?  If so, why do places 
like cheapbytes.com have to change it to "Pink Tie"?

Angelo

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 20:11, Angelo Bertolli wrote:
> 
>>I was always curious as to how certain distros got away with not making 
>>the source available to their product as per the GPL.  I went to 
>>Libranet's site and I couldn't find anything.  I found an old version of 
>>an ISO at linuxiso.org.  I thought the GPL stated that if you 
>>distributed a program under the GPL you must also provide the source 
>>code.  These days it seems no one cares so much about source as they do 
>>about getting the binaries.
> 
> 
> Common misconception here: A distributor doesn't have to make source
> widely available to every person in the world -- the GPL only requires
> that you allow others to freely distribute code and/or binaries and that
> you provide source code upon request for a reasonable fee. 
> 
> This isn't a "loophole" -- there's no reason why a company should have
> to pay for bandwidth to provide code or binaries to everyone in the
> world -- if a friend of yours buys Libranet, they can legally copy it
> for you (providing everything is GPL'ed...) why should Libranet have to
> pay the bandwidth costs to provide you with Linux if you haven't done
> business with them? 
> 
> 
>>At any rate, I guess the GPL does not state how easy it needs to be to 
>>obtain the source code.  So there is one loophole.
> 
> 
> Actually, it does -- from the GPL text itself:
> 
> 
> 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.)
> 
> Zonker