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(L)GPL quiz

2002-08-20 23:43:12+00 by Dan Lyke 6 comments

GNU Project: Free Software licensing quiz.

[ related topics: Free Software Software Engineering ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2002-08-21 04:43:22+00 by: Shawn

Wow, I'm not really surprised at how poorly I did, since I don't pay much attention to the details of any of the various licensing schemes out there. (Just never had a need - never been in ownership of code that I was worried about being stolen.)

I was surprised to find that making the source availble on your website doesn't cut it (meet the GPL) though. That seems kinda lame to me.

#Comment made: 2002-08-21 06:50:14+00 by: dws

I missed that one two. A strict reading of the GPL says that you need to offer source on the same media you distribute your product. If that's CD, then the source must be offered on CD. Seems kind of silly, since a download is much quicker to get.

#Comment made: 2002-08-21 10:38:23+00 by: pharm

But what if you offered the binaries by download, and the sources on 8-track tape? I think the wording on the GPL is set up to avoid these kind of games.

#Comment made: 2002-08-21 15:00:46+00 by: sethg

If you give away the software on CDs but only make the source available for download, and then your Web site vanishes (perhaps through no fault of your own) before anyone who wants the source actually downloads it, then all your customers are SOL.

#Comment made: 2002-08-21 16:26:46+00 by: Dan Lyke

I think it's also safe to say that if you make the program available on CD, and make the source available on CD and on your web site and people find your web site a better medium then you've still fulfilled your obligations under the GPL.

#Comment made: 2002-08-23 00:02:05+00 by: Shawn

I didn't feel that was clear from the questions/answers though. They never indicated that somebody was explicitly excluding the source being distributed on CD (or maybe I just took it for granted that if you're distributing the binaries on CD, you'd be fine doing so with the source as well) just because they were including it on the web site.