Re: Monta Vista software license terms

[Russell King <rmk@arm.linux.org.uk>]

IANAL.

In fact, most of the people on this list are not lawyers, so maybe
we're not the most appropriate people to answer your query.

On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 11:58:23AM +0000, Nilmoni Deb wrote:
> 	Its the last sentence that is of concern. Does this mean no 3rd
> party (who is not a customer) can get the GPL source code part of their
> products ? Seems like a GPL violation of clause 3b in
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html .

Section 3 seems to apply when a binary is redistributed, and my reading
of section 3b leads me to understand that it would only apply if all
of the following are satisfied:

1. A distributed a binary image to B.
2. A accompanied it with a written offer under section 3b.
3. A did not supply the source code corresponding to that
   binary as per 3a.

> In addition:
> 
> 1. There is no linux kernel source in ftp://ftp.mvista.com/
> 
> 2. The download page http://www.mvista.com/previewkit/index.html does not
> claim to offer any source code at all.

Does the site allow you to download a binary kernel image?  If the
answer is "no" then there isn't a problem here since section 3 does
not apply (no distribution of the program in object code or
executable form).

-- 
Russell King (rmk@arm.linux.org.uk)                The developer of ARM Linux
             http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/personal/aboutme.html