OT: GPL status of modified source (Was Re: Octave-forge and legal issues)

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Mon, 2005-04-25 at 10:47 -0500, Tom 'spot' Callaway wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-04-25 at 17:35 +0200, Matthias Saou wrote:
> > Ralf Corsepius wrote :
> > 
> > > On Mon, 2005-04-25 at 16:56 +0200, Matthias Saou wrote:
> > > > Quentin Spencer wrote :
> > > > 
> > > > > 2. Create a modified source tarball with the offending code removed. 
> > > > > This would be easy, but the source wouldn't match the upstream source.
> > > > 
> > > > This has already been done for some packages (e.g. xmms, gstreamer-
> > > > plugins), and AFAIK is acceptable.
> > > ... unless the sources are GPL'ed. Not shipping the original sources
> > > would violate the GPL.
> > 
> > Sounds like FUD. Could you elaborate a bit more? For me, this would
> > clearly be a case of "work based on the program", which is something the
> > GPL permits and even encourages (see section 2 of the license).
> 
> Yeah, I'm pretty sure that its not a violation. (IANAL)
OK, I stand corrected.

Ralf