LWN.net Logo

Fedora's advice on GPL compliance

Fedora's advice on GPL compliance

Posted Mar 22, 2008 13:01 UTC (Sat) by mbottrell (guest, #43008)
In reply to: Fedora's advice on GPL compliance by rahulsundaram
Parent article: Fedora's advice on GPL compliance

Really?!

What a load of tripe.

Almost all commercial entities that ship with GPL components (binary) make note to the fact
that the OSS code can be downloaded from their website.

'Ambassadors' are merely 'sales-persons' in an OSS world.   
If I buy product X from a commercial retailer, if I really want the source, I go to the
website, it shouldn't need to be any different with Linux distributions.

If this is what the FSF has got to, they really do have their heads up their butts.

Should I expect that GPLv4 will mean that I'll only be able to give binary distributions to my
friends (Windows converts to Linux for the first time) a source CD (which they will never
use), and ensure I have a stuffed parrot on my shoulder whilst  singing 'Mull of Kintyre'?

The availability of source code is just that... it's 'available'  The Internet is a perfect
medium to deliver it.  For the small percentage that will actually request it, they can
download it.

It's time the FSF come out of their ivory towers and start actually mixing with people in the
bazaar.


(Log in to post comments)

Fedora's advice on GPL compliance

Posted Mar 22, 2008 20:29 UTC (Sat) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

Note that we are talking about GPLv2 and internet was not a medium that was accessible to as
many people as it is now. GPLv3 has different requirements but there is still a lot of GPLv2
only licensed software in Fedora and that will continue for quite sometime so Fedora as a
project needs to satisfy the requirements of the license. 

Copyright © 2008, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
Powered by Rackspace Managed Hosting.