this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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Contributing back is besides the point. GPL is infectious, so all of their code which they aren’t releasing the source of is also considered GPL. So unless they release all of the source code they are still non compliant and I have to imagine they’re wel aware of this.
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:
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.
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.
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.
GPL only says you have to give the users the source code when they ask for it and you can make them pay for the distribution and they are already doing that so I'm not sure what you mean here.
I'm not a lawyer, and I certainly don't know the license to that degree, but if true then it seems reasonable for them to stop freely distributing source code and I'm not sure what people are upset about.. Sucks to lose something you used to get for free, but hardly an injustice.
Sounds like there's nothing stopping these derivative distro's from purchasing the source and continuing on.
Red Hat is saying if you buy a license and then redistribute the code, they will stop selling it to you.
This part is against the GPL, which specifically allows redistribution.