Re: blatant GPL violation of ext2 and reiserfs filesystem drivers

Harald Welte
2006-01-04T13:18:12Z

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On Wed, Jan 04, 2006 at 11:54:22AM +0000, Jamie Lokier wrote:
> Harald Welte wrote:
> > > The case here appears to be:
> > >
> > > * Crossmeta offers "add-on" software as a free download from their web
> > > site: <URL:http://www.crossmeta.com/downloads/crossmeta-add-1_0.zip>.
> > > The zip file contains a text file gpl-license.txt, which says that the
> > > add-ons are offered under the terms of the GPL.
> > >
> > > * User downloads this GPLed software and asks the developer to provide
> > > source code. Developer replies that the source code will be provided
> > > only to paying customers:
> > > <URL:http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/message.jspa?messageID=12277#12277>.
> > >
> > > That's baad, m'kay?
> >
> > This is definitely not acceptable. A written offer must be valid to ANY
> > 3RD PARTY.
> >
> > So it wouldn't even be enough to offer the source code to paying
> > customers and those who downloaded the binary code, but actually it must
> > be made available to anyone who asks for it.
>
> Ah, that depends on whether they provided the source code for download
> to paying customers at the time those customers downloaded the binary.

yes. but the point is (according to reports I have received) that the
object code (without source code) was available for download on the
crossmeta website.

Therefore anyone could have obtained a binary copy with no included
source code, and thus the 'any third party' clause implicitly comes into
effect.

As soon as you've even only once given a copy of the executable code
without at the same time including the full corresponding source code,
"any third party" is entitled to obtain a copy of the source code.

--
- Harald Welte <laforge@gnumonks.org> http://gnumonks.org/
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