Re: [PROPOSAL] Full text of GPL must be included

[tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)]

Brian Mays <brian@debian.org> writes:

> <sarcasm>
> But what if someone (named Fred) downloads our package and makes an RPM 
> out of it (using alien) and gives it to his friend (named Bob, who knows 
> nothing about Debian) and is hit by a car and dies.  Oh my god!  Bob would 
> then be left without knowledge or access to the source of the binaries, 
> and therefore a grievous violation of the GPL would have occurred!  We 
> MUST include the source too in our packages, to prevent tragic situations 
> such as this.
> </sarcasm>

This would be a crazy case indeed.

But the problem here is that there are companies which try to set up
exactly that kind of situation, or as close as they can come.  There
are companies which really do try to trick people out of the rights
they have on GPL'd software; it can and does happen.

The danger with those companies is that if we actually go after them,
they might say "hey, we're just doing what Debian does; we have a copy
of the license buried somewhere in our website, and if users read line
7231 of the manual they'll see exactly how to get a copy".  Now, that
*isn't* what Debian does, but the problem with slippery slopes of
precedent is at the beginning.

So the FSF needs to make sure that friends in the free software
community play by the rules, even if the danger isn't so high, because
otherwise our enemies might start ignoring the rules, and claiming the
behavior of our friends as precedent.

Thomas