Re: Monta Vista software license terms

Robert Love (rml@mvista.com)
05 Feb 2003 12:10:50 -0500


On Wed, 2003-02-05 at 06:58, Nilmoni Deb wrote:

> Its the last sentence that is of concern. Does this mean no 3rd
> party (who is not a customer) can get the GPL source code part of their
> products ? Seems like a GPL violation of clause 3b in
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html .

The GPL only requires that source accompanies any distributed binaries.
In other words, with distribution comes the requirement of source.
MontaVista provides all the source to all GPL components as part of
their products.

The GPL places no requirement on giving source away to the world at
large, which would be silly. If you do not distribute anything, you do
not have to make available the source. If you do, you need to give the
recipients the source as well.

That line is in the FAQ because many customers are concerned of their
obligations with GPL software.

Robert Love

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