SCO source distribution

Posted Jan 16, 2004 12:50 UTC (Fri) by maroberts (guest, #18745)
In reply to: Setting the Record Straight: The FSF, the GPL and SCO versus IBM by error27
Parent article: Setting the Record Straight: The FSF, the GPL and SCO versus IBM

Just to clarify, SCO is not violating the GPL by doing this (they may be in other ways). The GPL only requires you to make source code available to your customers, not the entire world.

Of course your customers are then free to do whatever they like once they have the code....

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SCO source distribution

Posted Jan 16, 2004 16:08 UTC (Fri) by error27 (subscriber, #8346) [Link] (1 responses)

Sorry, I was unclear. They are violating the GPL because they are making the source code available to customers but under the terms of the SCO license instead the terms of the GPL. They've tried to add restrictions to the GPL.

SCO source distribution

Posted Jan 18, 2004 6:16 UTC (Sun) by Ross (guest, #4065) [Link]

Apparently they tell customers they are only allowed to use binaries and
aren't allow to redistribute. Those are clearly incompatible with the
original license. The total list of restrictions can not be critiqued
because the license is only available to those willing to sign an NDA.

SCO source distribution

Posted Jan 16, 2004 16:09 UTC (Fri) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458) [Link]

If SCO distributes boot floppies (including a Linux kernel and other GPLed stuff) for all comers, per GPL they are forced to distribute the full source to said software to everybody who downloaded the binaries and asks.

SCO source distribution

Posted Jan 16, 2004 16:18 UTC (Fri) by error27 (subscriber, #8346) [Link] (1 responses)

The GPL only requires you to make source code available to your customers, not the entire world.

This isn't completely correct.

If you distribute the source code and binaries together then you only need to give the source to the binary. If you distribute them seperately, then you need to make the source code available to the entire world. Here is the relevent text from the GPL:

    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,

SCO source distribution

Posted Jan 16, 2004 18:05 UTC (Fri) by piman (guest, #8957) [Link]

You must make the source available to anyone in the world who requests it, but you only need provide notice that you will answer such requests, to the people you distribute the binaries to.