Re: Debian on one dvd?

[John Hasler <jhasler@debian.org>]

Siward de Groot writes:
> If you include a written offer, and sell the software bundle for money,
> then the written offer is automatically part of that sale and the
> customer can through a court of law enforce their right to get the
> sources, i think (well, actually it's just an assumption).  If, on the
> other hand, the software bundle is given away for free, as it would be in
> this case, then there is no sales contract, and consequently no
> obligation to actually provide the sources.

Contracts have nothing to do with it.  The GPL is a conditional grant of
rights from the copyright owners to you, the distributor.  If you fail to
provide sources upon request the copyright owners can sue you for copyright
infringement.

And it is quite likely that some of them will.

> However, actually providing the sources is even better, as the cost of
> providing them can include compensation for time you spend on that, and
> you can fill in your own hourly wages freely.  Or do you think that a
> court would oblige you to work for a salary equal to the average wages in
> India ?

They may not let you get away with billing your time at $200/hr when the
copyright owner can easily show that you could have hired the job done for
a few cents a copy.  Note that you only get to charge for the cost of
physically performing source distribution.  You do not get to charge for
the cost of preparing the source for distribution.
-- 
John Hasler