[K12OSN] K12LTSP/K12Linux 'crusaders'

[Les Mikesell]

Patrick Fleming wrote:
> 
>> So the "sale force" has to sell "installed seats" while not violating
>> the spirit and letter of the GPL (which strictly forbids per seat
>> licensing of the code!) by only selling a package of installed code with
>> support - no exceptions. Add in a training program for existing school
>> admins to start getting them up to speed on Linux and it might work.
>>
> 
> You can sell per seat, per user, per server or whatever other method you 
> want to. There is nothing in the GPL that prevents this. RedHat does it, 
> Novell does it. The only thing the GPL prevents is lockout - if someone 
> wants the source, they get the source. I hope that I'm misunderstanding 
> your use of "strictly forbids per seat licensing"

What the GPL says is:

    6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
  Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
  original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
  these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further
  restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.


I'm sure RedHat has some reason to believe that their restriction 
against installing licensed copies on additional machines is legal, but 
I've never been to understand how they reconcile that. There is no 
distinction between binaries and source here, and no exceptions for how 
you impose those restrictions.  As long as they make the source 
available so projects like Centos can exist, I doubt if anyone will 
challenge them on it, though.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com