On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, Stephen Frost wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, Alan Cox wrote:
>
> > > If I am distributing the hypothetical binary image over the Net, though,
> > > is it not sufficient for me to link to the source tarballs I used?
> >
> > Certainly for non commercial cases.
> >
> > > Actually, I suspect an offer to e-mail the kernel source to anyone, in
> > > exchange for them paying the resultant phone bill (at 8p/min on a 28.8K
> > > modem, of course) would technically fulfil the requirements of "b"; I
> > > received a browser and SSL support by e-mail just a few weeks ago.
> >
> > Try that in Guyana say. The GPL applies beyond the western world. Obvioously
> > FTP downloaded code implies source download is sane but shipping binary CD
> > saying 'download the source' clearly only works for subsets of the planet
>
> Perhaps it doesn't. One could offer to ship the source in the exact
> same medium the binary is shipped in at cost. The point is that source code
> does not *have* to be shipped with the binary, it just has to be made
> availible at cost to whomever the binary is made availible to.
Except I really don't want to get into the mail order CD business on a 0%
profit margin. The source is already freely available, all I am doing is
making the compiled binaries available as well. Why should I have to
mirror the source as well, or offer to supply it at cost - what does this
achieve?
I think the core problem is just that the GPL wasn't designed with this
sort of thing in mind. Back before the Net was widespread, software
distribution would have meant Sun and SGI shipping tapes or CDs of
binaries; requiring the inclusion or offer of a copy of the source was
reasonable.
Now the source is already freely available, and individuals have the
ability to "distribute" their own software directly, the GPL needs some
adjustment.
James.
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