Re: Selling CDs...
I am still not a lawyer, etc. etc.
On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 11:26:46AM +1000, Sam Johnston wrote:
> Thomas,
>
> IANAL either (are there any on this list? :P) but I know there's people left
> right and centre selling binary only CDs and not running into trouble. For
> example down here we have at least http://www.everythinglinux.com.au and
> http://www.lsl.com.au but I'm sure there's others. They'll sell you burnt
> cds within day(s) of release and then follow up with pressed cds days/weeks
> thereafter. As for keeping the source... it's hardly a huge expense but I
> doubt you need to... packages aren't going away and even if they did I'm
> sure we'd all be happy to dig them up if someone ever tried to sue you.
>
...
The condition in the GPL says "corresponding source code", so
having a newer and better version of a package available is not
(in theory) good enough. I know at least one case in which a
magazine did the right thing and included the 3 year offer in
the small print next to their disclaimer.
In practice the "right" way would be to simply offer both CD
sets (binary and source) for sale with a low price on the source
CD set, and a coupon or notice on the box of the binary CD set.
The low price source CD set satisfies the GPL condition if kept
in back stock. The profit (if desired) can be made on the
binary CD set because few people will have any use for buying the
source CD set without buying the binary CD set for at least one
architecture. But don't sue me if you are suddenly swamped with
people buying source CDs even though they never bought a binary
one.
Cheers
Jakob
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