Re: A new practical problem with invariant sections?
On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:37:07 +1100, Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> said:
> the GPL says you must include the full machine-readable/editable
> source code, so if you can't do that in a given medium (say, a chip
> with 1KB capacity) then GPL software is not free in any medium.
>From the GPL:
,----
| 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,
`----
3a only says that a binary has to be *accompanied* with the source code.
Hence it can be on a separate medium. So you can distribute your 1KB
chip, stapled to a CD-ROM that contains the source, and still comply
with the terms of the GPL.
Interestingly, you don't even have to make sure that it's on a medium
that the recipient can actually read, as long as it's a "medium
customarily used for software interchange". So you can distribute the
source on CD-ROMs, even if you know your recipient doesn't have a CD-ROM
drive.
But it gets even better. You don't even have to accompany the binary
with the source itself. If you want, you can instead:
,----
| 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.)
`----
> try again. if you keep coming up with these absurd claims, the laws of
> chance says that you must get it right one day. OTOH, you've got a
> better chance of winning a big lottery.
--
Hubert Chan <hubert@uhoreg.ca> - http://www.uhoreg.ca/
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