MEPIS and GPL Compliance [LWN.net]

MEPIS Linux (home of SimplyMEPIS and MEPISLite) is a fairly popular Debian-based distribution company. With the recent release of SimplyMEPIS 6.0, a MEPIS transitioned from using Debian packages to using Ubuntu (actually Kubuntu as MEPIS is KDE-centric) packages.

MEPIS has typically used binary packages straight from the parent repository for large parts of the system. They never carried the source code for these unaltered packages. For packages that they did alter, such as the MEPIS kernel, they have always made the source code available. However that doesn't conform to the letter of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2, the license used by many of the packages found in SimplyMEPIS. The GPL v2 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,

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; or,

c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

Sending people to the parent source repository is not good enough, although they got away with it for some time. So MEPIS has now announced a full GPL source release. There are some interesting comments in the associated GPL compliance FAQ, however.

MEPIS now offers all source code on 2 DVDs available though the MEPIS Store.

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MEPIS and GPL Compliance

Posted Aug 3, 2006 4:56 UTC (Thu) by sfeam (subscriber, #2841) [Link] (1 responses)

So what happened to the argument that distribution via the web, be it ftp, http, bittorrent, or whatever, _is_ a "medium customarily used for software interchange", as required by clause 3b?

That may or may not have been true at the time the GPL was originally crafted, but it is without question true now. I am failing to understand how or why there is now a push to require a physical DVD be provided. Of course if MEPIS want to sell DVDs, that's fine, but that should be at their discretion.

MEPIS and GPL Compliance

Posted Aug 3, 2006 9:07 UTC (Thu) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]

They weren't asked to distribute DVDs. They weren't even asked to create their bizarre "agency" scheme that obliges them to provide source code for old MEPIS versions in perpetuity. They were just told that as a commercial distributor MEPIS must provide the source themselves instead of saying "We got it from $freedistro, try them". Yes, a web site or FTP site that was properly maintained by MEPIS would be an adequate solution.

What you're seeing is a temper tantrum, something people with kids will recognise. Rather than do what was asked they do something excessive instead and then look around for sympathy, "look what you made me do now".

Since they have fulfilled the requirements of the license, there's no reason to pay any more attention to MEPIS.

MEPIS and GPL Compliance

Posted Aug 3, 2006 12:45 UTC (Thu) by grouch (guest, #27289) [Link]

Q4. Does this mean that if I give a copy of MEPIS to a friend, I also have to give them a copy of the GPLed source code?
A4. According to the Free Software Foundation, if they want the source code, it means exactly that. Whether you give MEPIS to a friend or install it on a computer and sell it, or even if you give it away on the street corner, you are still obligated by the restrictions of the GPL license.
"Warren"

It looks to me like he didn't read section 3 of the GPL. Since Mepis is or was doing commercial distribution, 3.a. and 3.b. apply. If Mepis had complied with either of those two obligations, then anyone handing out a Mepis CD would be covered under 3.c., because the "offer to distribute corresponding source code" would be with or on those CDs.

Noncommercial distribution, such as "give a copy [...] to a friend", lets you point upstream for the source: "Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code." That information should have been on every Mepis CD shared.

That whole page looks like a whine, to me.