"Siward de Groot" <siward@wanadoo.nl> wrote in message [🔎] 200512150240.26769.siward@wanadoo.nl">news:[🔎] 200512150240.26769.siward@wanadoo.nl...
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Here i think clause b) is sufficient, as info on debian servers is machine-readable, and the internet is a medium customarily used for software interchange. So clause c) is not needed. Last paragraph is not applicable, and though it gives impression that 'offering access' is only OK if binaries were gotten from same place, it does not actually state that, so we are not bound by that.
The FSF diagrees. See below.
And in case you don't agree with that, clause c) can be used, as all packages on this DVD come from a Debian release, which was gotten with an offer to distribute source, and you only redistribute (unmodified) from that distribution, so pointing to debian.org's servers is explicitly OK.
Debian does not distribute the images under clause B, and clause C does not apply unless the licencee recieves the work under clause B. So either which way, this does not allow distribution with a pointer to an ftp server.
Now here is the FSF opinion on the issue:
Q: I want to distribute binaries without accompanying sources. Can I
provide source code by FTP instead of by mail order?
A: You're supposed to provide the source code by mail-order on a physical
medium, if someone orders it. You are welcome
to offer people a way to copy the corresponding source code by FTP,
in addition to the mail-order option, but FTP access
to the source is not sufficient to satisfy section 3 of the GPL.
When a user orders the source, you have to make sure to get the
source to that user. If a particular user can conveniently get the
source from you by anonymous FTP, fine--that does the job. But not
every user can do such a download. The rest of the users
are just as entitled to get the source code from you, which means you
must be prepared to send it to them by post.
If the FTP access is convenient enough, perhaps no one will choose to
mail-order a copy. If so, you will never have to ship one.
But you cannot assume that. Of course, it's easiest to just send the
source with the binary in the first place.
Basically the FSF belives medium implies physical medium.