Quoting Paul Linehan (plinehan@yahoo.com):
> What is the GPL all about then?
(1) I'm sure you are not _actually_ under the delusion that everything
on a typical Linux distribution issued subject to the terms of the GNU
GPL.  For one thing, it seems difficult to imagine you _not_ being aware
that XFree86 is under the X/MIT licence, that Perl is under the Perl
Artistic Licence, that Apache is under the Apache licence, and that
numerous BSD utilities are under the BSD licence.
Furthermore, xv, Acrobat Reader, pine, pico, Netscape Communicator, and
a whole slew of other applications typically included aren't under any
open source licence at all, but rather are proprietary.
(2) You seem, in any event, to be under a misconception as to what the
GPL provides, as to code under its umbrella.  It says (in part) that
_if_ you have lawfully received a copy of covered binary code, then you
may insist on one of certain forms of access to the matching source
code.  Please note that it does _not_ guarantee you any rights
whatsoever if nobody's decided to give you a lawful copy.
> But *_surely_* they cannot BSD Linux? It's not theirs to BSD!
Again, you seem to be under a misconception.  If you check, I'm quite
confident you'll see that SuSE are in full compliance with GPL v. 2's
source-code access provisions concerning GPLed code included in their
distribution.  And no, nobody has the legal right to alter licence terms
to someone else's copyrighted property.  But you have not cited any
reasons to believe that SuSE have done any of those things.
> Fine - nobody can oblige SuSE to do anything other than put up the ftp
> version, but surely they can't prevent a CD owner from burning a copy
> and giving it to me?
See below.  You and the CD owner would be committing copyright violation.
SuSE Linux AG are rather unlikely to knock down your door and haul you
down to a judge, if that's what you're asking.
> Nobody can oblige them to give away anything other than ftp - I'm not
> asking for that. I'm asking for somebody who has Linux (GPL'ed) to
> burn a copy for me and give it to me in exchange for a reasonable
> consideration (say, the price of the CDs and a bottle of Frascati or a
> couple of pints?).
You appear confused between Linux the kernel (which is a copyrighted
work to which source code access is guaranteed under the GNU GPL if
you've received a lawful copy of a binary version) and the rather
imprecise concept of a "Linux distribution", which is a number of works
under diverse licence terms collected onto some media.
In the case of SuSE's boxed sets -- which are NOT lawful to duplicate
and redistribute in their entirety -- at least a couple of the
applications on them (YaST, YaST2, and the installer program) are
proprietary copyrighted works of SuSE Linux AG.  In the general case,
duplicating and redistributing CD-ROMs containing those works is
copyright infringement.  Illegal.  No amount of hand-waving about the
GNU GPL is going to change that.
(SuSE permit people to duplicate and redistribute the "evaluation" and
"live-eval" CD editions, despite that fact, as long as it is not "for
value".)
If you want to have a SuSE boxed set to install from, buy one.
> What does the GPL mean now?
Suggestion:  Read it.  I would guess you've not yet done so.
--
Cheers,                                             Live Faust, die Jung.
Rick Moen
rick@linuxmafia.com
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