Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve gnu.misc.discuss:6450 comp.os.linux:12173 comp.unix.bsd:6306
Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!sgiblab!darwin.sura.net!ra!tantalus.nrl.navy.mil!eric
From: eric@tantalus.nrl.navy.mil (Eric Youngdale)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: distributing linux on floppies
Message-ID: <3928@ra.nrl.navy.mil>
Date: 8 Oct 92 20:45:54 GMT
References: <1992Oct7.040347.425@fcom.cc.utah.edu> <1992Oct7.164402.29427@uc.msc.edu> <1992Oct8.200527.1567@fcom.cc.utah.edu>
Sender: usenet@ra.nrl.navy.mil
Organization: Naval Research Laboratory
Lines: 65
In article <1992Oct8.200527.1567@fcom.cc.utah.edu> terry@icarus.weber.edu writes:
>In article <1992Oct7.164402.29427@uc.msc.edu> fink@et.msc.edu (Paul Fink) writes:
>>
>>I think it might be more appropriate for linux distribution to be done
>>by a user group rather than a for profit company.
>
>Not only appropriate, but the only possible mechanism, short of self
>distribution over a network. From the GPL:
>
> "1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source
> code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and
> appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and
> disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this
> General Public License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any
> other recipients of the Program a copy of this General Public License
> along with the Program. You may charge a fee for the physical act of
> transferring a copy."
>
>In particular, the last sentence, "You may charge a fee for the physical
>act of transferring a copy" prevents centralized distribution; this is
>because only the distributor may make money; no money may be made from
>at the retail outlet, unless the retail outlet provides direct support
>or copy production facilities. The only other alternative is that the
That clause only applies to source code. Section 3 applies to
binaries:
***********************************************
3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
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,
c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
received the program in object code or executable form with such
an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
***********************************************
A linux/gnu shrink-wrapped distribution could consist of a box with the
binary distribution on floppies in it, a manual, a pair of 3d glasses, and
information about how to order the source code diskettes. The charge for the
source code diskettes would be limited to just the usual media charges,
but you could charge anything you want for the shrink-wrapped box itself.
Note that someone else could copy your disks and sell them themselves,
and this would be perfectly legal (as long as they also made the source
code available).
-Eric
--
Eric Youngdale