47
submitted 1 year ago by fred@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] fortified_banana@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

I think they'll still be compliant as long as they offer their source to customers. The GPL doesn't require that you make source available to anyone, but to anyone that you distribute binaries to. From the GNU website:

One of the fundamental requirements of the GPL is that when you distribute object code to users, you must also provide them with a way to get the source.

Source: Quick GPLv3 Guide under the More Ways for Developers to Provide Source section.

Of course the GPL also allows redistribution of source code, and Red Hat seems to want to threaten customers who do so.

[-] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah, preventing your users from redistribution this is where they might get into trouble and the GPL license would be retracted and thus they would have pirated the software. But someone would need to prove it in court and IBM has a couple of good lawyers.

[-] Naatan@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Maybe I'm missing something; I thought the issue here was that they "aren't" making their source code available. Just modifications to the original code that can be supplied back to the original source. That doesn't cover all derivative work though.

this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
47 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37758 readers
566 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS