Re: Possible GPL Violation of Linux in Amstrad's E3 Videophone (me too???)

From: Anton Ertl
Date: Mon Oct 04 2004 - 04:46:28 EST


Matthew Garrett writes:
>The GPL requires that source be available to anyone who receives a copy
>of the binaries. There are three ways to do this, only two of which
>apply to commercial distribution. You can either:
>
>a) Provide the source alongside the binaries, or
>b) Provide a written offer (a text file on a CD is fine) for the source
>
>You never need to provide the source to anyone you don't provide the
>binaries to

If you go for option b, you have to provide the offer for the source
to _any third party_, so (in combination with option c) anyone could
take the offer and ask you for the source.

If you want to avoid having to keep track of the source code belonging
to a binary version, and keeping it around for three years, better
choose option a.

- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
anton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
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