If you're selling PCs as a business, YOU CAN'T say "go to debian.org" (or you might be able to but you're taking a massive risk!)Hi, I'm planning to sell PCs with a preinstalled Debian system. This in itself should not be problematic, I guess. But do I have to handle sources? GPL section 3 requires me to either include all sources of the installed GPL binaries or give a written offer to ship the sources on CD/DVD/whatever media. Is that correct, or is it ok to say 'look, it's Debian on that machine, go to debian.org for the sources'? What are other people who sell PCs with preinstalled Debian doing?
If I give a PC with Debian pre-installed to a friend, I can say "go to Debian.org" because I'm covered by the non-commercial bit.
But if you're a business, then YOU are liable to provide the source. If the download site goes away and you haven't made a copy, you're sunk. You have legal obligations and you can't meet them. You're in deep doodoo if someone calls you on them.
So you NEED to make a copy. And once you've done that, you might as well burn a CD/DVD for every PC you sell. If you do that, then when they come to you saying "I demand my copy of the source that the GPL says you have to give me", you can say "you got it with the PC. If you've lost it, tough luck". Not that I'd advise being that harsh to your customers, but at least you can legally say "shove off" without being in breach of the licence (good customer relations says you should say "okay, I'll burn you another copy" :-)
Cheers, Wol -- Anthony W. Youngman - anthony@thewolery.demon.co.uk