Re: GPL violators (charging for a Linux kernel by itself and then charging again for source)

[Phil Turmel <philip@turmel.org>]

On 01/03/2014 05:07 PM, Richard Weinberger wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 7:56 PM, Eric Appleman <erappleman@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Wasn't the whole idea of a fee being permitted an acknowledgment that
>> physical distribution of source was acceptable if electronic was not
>> possible (low bandwidth ISP, security concerns, etc).
> 
> GPLv2 states:
> "You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
> you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a
> fee."

Yeah, that's section #1.  Charge all you want for general distribution.

But you are forgetting section #3, which kicks in if you distribute in
compiled or executable form.  It limits the fee for separate source code
delivery to "no more than your cost of physically performing source
distribution"

Only your customers are entitled to that service, though.

But IANAL.

Regards,

Phil