Linux-kernel mailing list archive 2000-23,: Re: [LINUX-ABIT] Re: ABIT -- GENTUS Linux Steals GPL CODE AGAIN!!

# Re: [LINUX-ABIT] Re: ABIT -- GENTUS Linux Steals GPL CODE AGAIN!!

James Sutherland (jas88@cam.ac.uk)
Thu, 8 Jun 2000 07:16:17 +0100 (BST)

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On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, Stephen Frost wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, James Sutherland wrote:
>
> > > 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.
> >
> > The problem here is that I may not have the resources to do this. I could
> > put the hypothetical repair disk image on my free ISP webspace, and let
> > people download it from there. However, the GPL then requires me to
> > include a written offer to supply the source to these people at or
> > below cost. One problem is how to include a written offer with a download,
> > of course; presumably a message to that effect on the WWW page would
> > suffice.
> >
> > The big problem, though, is how am I supposed to supply the source? I
> > probably won't have enough space on my personal WWW site to fit all the
> > kernel source and the source to all the other utilities; even if I did,
> > ftp.*.kernel.org are much better places to go, so what's the point?
> >
> > Legally, then, I would have to offer to mail the source on CDr or
> > something similar. Hopefully, this would just be a technicality and no-one
> > would take me up on the offer - but it's not a risk I want to take. I
> > don't want to become a mail order CD burning service running at a 0%
> > profit margin, and frankly there's no point in this requirement.
>
> Compressed source I believe is relatively small, usually.

Even with bzip2, the source tarball for the kernel alone is ten times the
size of the disk image. An order of magnitude is usually fairly
significant...

> Also, I believe just your modifications to larger works such as the
> kernel would be reasonable to put online with a pointer to the kernel
> as a whole for the complete source.

In this hypothetical case, there are no modifications - but the letter of
the GPL still requires me to put the source code online alongside the
binary.

> In any case I believe that the medium which is used to transmit the
> binary should be the only medium that the source is required to be
> transported in. If someone downloads a binary from you then it is clear
> that they are able to retrieve the source code in the same medium. They
> have no right to demand the source be provided in a different medium.
> As for your 'problem' of not having enough space on your server,
> I suspect there would be a number of places willing to assist you. I,
> personally, don't feel that is much to go on.

It's not usually a huge problem, but it is one extra hurdle which is
completely unnecessary. It's just a waste of disk space for me to try
providing the source myself; ftp.*.kernel.org already does so perfectly
well.

James.

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