[Linux-aus] Did SCO Violate the GPL?

[Chris Samuel]

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On Wednesday 11 Jun 2003 11:13 pm, Jan Schmidt wrote:

> Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the GPL is that you
> have to make source code available to users of the binary should they want
> it, and they have to make it available to anyone else they give the binary
> to... which means I'm not entitled to sue SCO, since I never bought a copy
> of their Unix, and am therefore not 'a user of the binaries'.

IANAL, but here goes anyway. :-)

Not strictly true, section 3.a & 3.b. of the GPL2 (the only ones that apply to 
commercial distribution)  say:

    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
    source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
    1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
    customarily used for software interchange; or,

My understanding is that *any* third party can request the source, from 
section 3.b.

Also, I believe the GPL does not allow restrictions to be placed upon whomever 
the source code *is* distributed to, so they in turn are free to redistribute 
it to others.

Chris

PS: Is anyone from SCO subscribed to this list ? :-)
- -- 
 Chris Samuel  :  http://csamuel.org/  :  Melbourne, VIC

 Need someone with 10 years of Linux, Unix, Networking
   & IT Security skills in Melbourne, VIC ? Email me.

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