Red Hat's "obfuscated" kernel source [LWN.net]

Red Hat's "obfuscated" kernel source

Posted Mar 1, 2011 18:36 UTC (Tue) by bronson (subscriber, #4806)
In reply to: Red Hat's "obfuscated" kernel source by daniel
Parent article: Red Hat's "obfuscated" kernel source

> there is no such thing as piracy of open source software

http://gpl-violations.org/

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Red Hat's "obfuscated" kernel source

Posted Mar 1, 2011 21:27 UTC (Tue) by daniel (guest, #3181) [Link] (3 responses)

First, that page says nothing about piracy so I do not understand why you linked it, and second, copying Red Hat's distribution disks may in no way be construed as piracy, a fact not universally understood by Red Hat management.

Red Hat's "obfuscated" kernel source

Posted Mar 3, 2011 17:46 UTC (Thu) by vonbrand (guest, #4458) [Link] (2 responses)

Red Hat's Linux offerings do include certain parts that you aren't allowed to freely redistribute. That they sit on the same DVDs (or even inside the same RPMs) with stuff that you can redistribute freely doesn't allow you to redistribute them.

Red Hat's "obfuscated" kernel source

Posted Mar 4, 2011 15:55 UTC (Fri) by Tet (subscriber, #5433) [Link] (1 responses)

Red Hat's Linux offerings do include certain parts that you aren't allowed to freely redistribute

[citation needed] There used to be an extras disc that contained various non-free apps. I don't know if that still exists. But in the main RHEL, I'm not aware of anything that isn't redistributable. The artwork and logos have restrictions on use, but not on distribution AFAIK. And the various bits of firmware in the kernel have passed the scrutiny of Red Hat's legal team, so although some may claim they're not distributable, it would seem that they are in the real world.

So what are you claiming they are shipping that can't be freely redistributed?

Red Hat's "obfuscated" kernel source

Posted Mar 5, 2011 20:27 UTC (Sat) by vonbrand (guest, #4458) [Link]

I'm talking about the logos and the whole branding as Red Hat. It is on the media you get from Red Hat, and you can't redistribute that freely, extra conditions apply. Same as with the Fedora branding, and (presumably) even Debian.

The "extra software" CD that came with early Red Hat distributions (and wasn't on their website) is something entirely different.