Novell/progeny to take up redhat legacy services

[Pierre-Francois Honore]

On Sat, 2003-12-06 at 05:13, Michael Schwendt wrote:
> On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 19:31:34 -0500, Carlos Villegas wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 11:33:46PM +0100, Michael Schwendt wrote:
> > > you're allowed to distribute the GPL'ed software. -- Or imagine you'd
> > > purchase a personalized copy of the software in binary form. The GPL does
> > > not cover whether you're allowed to redistribute that personalized binary
> > > version. -- Another example where you don't lose the rights in the source
> > 
> > I'm not a lawyer, but that example (personalized binary) clearly would
> > violate the GPL, if the original code is GPL, then any derivative work is
> > GPL (personlized source that produced the binary), as such you are entitled
> > to that source and can redistribute it and modify it as you please.
> 
> But the source code is available. The GPL has no requirements whatsoever
> that the program is shipped together with a complete set of tools that
> create the preconfigured, personalized, installable software. The GPL just
> requires that the complete source code for the program is made available,
> not that it is trivial or easy to rebuild the program. [1]
> 

I don't tink so. The source code must be a targz or equivalent (not
printed source code) and ready to build. I suppose that if you
distribute a RPM, you have to provide a SRPM.

chapter 3 of the GPL :
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source
code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control
compilation and installation of the executable.

> Probably it didn't become clear what "personalization" means. It could be
> a digital key file, heavy preconfiguration or complex installation and
> set-up requirements. In either case, additional customization that is
> beyond the scope of the GPL.
> 
> [...]
> 
> [1] E.g. if a GPL'ed program is able to decode mp3 files, it need not
> include an mp3 encoder. Similarly, if a program at startup asks for a
> digital key file or serial number (which must be purchased), the source
> code need not include the tools required to create that input.

If so you can fork and distribute a new version without the key
requirement.