GRsecurity violating GPLv2 themselves by prohibiting redistribution

Posted Jun 2, 2016 1:00 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796)
In reply to: GRsecurity violating GPLv2 themselves by prohibiting redistribution by nealmcb
Parent article: Grsecurity stable patches to be limited to sponsors

The GPL governs the conditions under which you're allowed to distribute the code, and the support contract governs the conditions under which grsecurity is prepared to provide you with support and updates for the code. The two are completely separate legal agreements that deal with different services, and there is no magic connection between the two.

This means that the support contract does not impinge on your rights under the GPL. The GPL gives you the right to take the grsecurity source code (which is provided under the GPL) and pass it on to whomever you wish as long as you do it within the confines of the GPL. But whether you like it or not, if the support contract contains language to that effect, it is absolutely grsecurity's privilege to cancel it if they catch you passing on their code. This is a support issue and has no bearing on the GPL; if your support contract is cancelled, you still get to use and distribute the code that you already have under the GPL, even though you forfeit the right to support and further updates. The GPL doesn't care.

In summary, however distasteful and contrary to the spirit of Linux software development it may seem to some, the grsecurity folks are under no obligation to give anyone anything for free. If you don't like their behaviour or the terms of their support contract, don't buy their stuff.