GPLv2§2(a) does not say what you think it says

Posted Jan 19, 2025 9:55 UTC (Sun) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: GPLv2§2(a) does not say what you think it says by paulj
Parent article: The OpenWrt One system

> Personally, I'd love to see a court come along and kick the backside of the various people who insist that the GPL distribution requirements are set in stone, and hence a tarball suffice.

Well, If I can't be assed to use a VCS (some people don't), and my standard backup practice is a tarball (ie I'm a dinosaur, which is true but in my case not THAT true), then a tarball is the only choice.

The end user does not get to dictate to the developer what working practices they use. If the developer says "here is a copy of my working directory as backed up when I gave you the binary", then that's what you get!

And if the developer says "I've only got mobile pay-as-you-go internet and posting a CD is cheaper" then you have to negotiate a price for sending it by email or whatever.

At the end of the day, pretty much the only come-back the user has against the developer is "you're not allowed to treat ME DIFFERENTLY with the INTENT of causing pain".

Cheers,
Wol