LWN.net Logo

Fair question

Fair question

Posted May 30, 2007 15:52 UTC (Wed) by martinfick (subscriber, #4455)
In reply to: Fair question by man_ls
Parent article: Windows firewall squeezes into USB key (LinuxDevices)

"they have a right to know if the license to their contributions has been complied with without having to buy every device that use them"

Actually, they don't. Nowhere in the GPL does it say: you must make the copyright holders aware of any use of their software. The only person whom you must do that to is the person you distribute the software to. If the copyright holders care, it is up to them to investigate, just like it would be with proprietary software.


(Log in to post comments)

Fair question

Posted May 30, 2007 18:08 UTC (Wed) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

I don't really know if the copyright holder has the right to ask how the covered works were used, I suppose it is usually solved with a polite request.

I didn't mean anything so formal, OK? But once it is known that a product uses free software, the owners can make sure that their license is being complied with. Maybe posting on LWN is not the best way, but asking "where is the source code" seems legitimate enough.

Copyright © 2013, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds