GPL compliance

Daniel Carrera daniel.carrera at zmsl.com
Fri Jun 30 09:39:39 UTC 2006


On Fri, 2006-30-06 at 08:15 +0200, Alexander Skwar wrote:
> > That's why I use a distribution that includes only free software. And
> > these are not "magic" statements. This is section 3 of the GPL.
> 
> I think you miss an important point here - Ubuntu does not *only*
> contain software which is licensed under GPL, but also under other
> free licenses. But it is conceivable, that those licenses are only
> free to Canonical but that they might prohibit a further distribution.

That's a good point. I haven't actually forgotten that. But Ubuntu has a
policy of using only free software. One of the properties of free
software licenses is that they allow re-distribution. For example,
Ubuntu doesn't come with Microsoft fonts because, although those are
free as in beer, and anyone can get them, their license does not allow
further distribution.

If we were talking about another distribution, which might have that
sort of deal with non-free software (e.g. Linspire) I wouldn't think for
a minute that the notice I suggest would make distribution legal.

Cheers,
Daniel.
-- 
http://opendocumentfellowship.org
  "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
  unreasonable man tries to adapt the world to himself.
  Therefore all progress depends on unreasonable men."
        -- George Bernard Shaw





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