Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction [LWN.net]

Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction

Posted Apr 15, 2004 18:12 UTC (Thu) by dd9jn (subscriber, #4459)
In reply to: Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction by QuisUtDeus
Parent article: Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction

The GPL is pretty clear on that: If you distribute the software (or a product using the software) you must either include the complete source or accompany it with a written offer to deliver the source on demand, valid for at least 3 years.

It does not matter whether they modified the software, they are distributing it and thus they have to distribute the source too. It doesn't matter whether there is an easy way to get the software onto this device. If you distribute it on an soldered ROM on a mainboard, you still have to comply with the GPL. It is up to the user to tinker with the hardware to get the software updated.

HP has to deliver the source with a preconfigured GNU/Linux box.

If you maintain a system and change parts of the Linux kernel, you need to hand out the source to the owner of that machine. He will demand that anyway.

You do NOT need to give your changes to the WORLD: The rule is simple: everyone who gets the binary has the right to get the source too.

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Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction

Posted Apr 15, 2004 18:30 UTC (Thu) by welinder (guest, #4699) [Link]

If you maintain a system and change parts of the Linux kernel, you need to hand out the source to the owner of that machine. He will demand that anyway.

That doesn't sound like distribution to me. Each to these steps sound ok to me:

There is a stock kernel on the box, source and all.
You edit some part and recompile.
You delete the source.
You walk out of door.

No distribution, so the GPL does not come into play as far as I can tell. (Well, one could argue that step 2 is some kind of distribution, but at that point there really is source, so no problem.)

Anyone hiring you to work on the box ought to ask for source, of course.

Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction

Posted Apr 15, 2004 22:30 UTC (Thu) by tomsi (subscriber, #2306) [Link]

The moment you release the compiled version of the modified kernel, you must also be able give the modified source code the those who have recieved the compiled kernel.

If someone has deleted the changed source code, you can't release a kernel based on that code. Period. Read the GPL again; distributions does'nt have anything to do with it.

Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction

Posted Apr 16, 2004 17:38 UTC (Fri) by bas (subscriber, #7043) [Link]

> You do NOT need to give your changes to the WORLD: The rule is simple: 
> everyone who gets the binary has the right to get the source too.

This is not true.  Please read the GPL:

[you must (a), (b) or (c)]

    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
    customarily used for software interchange; 

Yes, that says "any third party", not just the people who got the binary.

Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction

Posted Apr 16, 2004 22:44 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

But just above that, the GPL states

  3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
    source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
    1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
...

i.e., if you provide the person you give the binary with the source code, b) does not apply to you. You only need to do *one* of those things.

Netfilter gets a GPL-enforcement injunction

Posted Apr 16, 2004 23:59 UTC (Fri) by piman (subscriber, #8957) [Link]

You can also do a), or c) if you distribute noncommercially.

If you do b), the offer must be given only to the people you distribute source to, even if the offer is valid for any third party. This is so the people you give source to, can pass along your offer if they in turn give the source to someone else.