Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264188AbTFKT7f (ORCPT ); Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:59:35 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264186AbTFKT7e (ORCPT ); Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:59:34 -0400 Received: from mail.webmaster.com ([216.152.64.131]:61608 "EHLO shell.webmaster.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264188AbTFKT7L (ORCPT ); Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:59:11 -0400 From: "David Schwartz" To: "Adrian Bunk" , "Randolph Bentson" Cc: "Linux Kernel Mailing List" Subject: RE: Linksys WRT54G and the GPL Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 13:12:59 -0700 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <20030611192232.GB16164@fs.tum.de> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Importance: Normal Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2057 Lines: 48 > On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 10:39:36AM -0700, Randolph Bentson wrote: > >... > > If the distributor elects to distribute the object code or executable > > form under clause 3b, one might reasonably argue that the distributor > > need only distribute the source to those third parties in possession > > of the written offer which must be included. Others may argue that > >... > "Accompany it with a written offer, ..., to give any third party, ..., a > complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code..." > > This is non-ambiguous. You might _not_ "reasonably argue" about it, the > "any third party" leaves no room for other interpretations. > > > Randolph Bentson > > cu > Adrian Think about this logically. Suppose a company releases a product and (maybe) accompanies it with such a written offer (I mean, how could you know for sure if you hadn't seen it?). You call the company up to try to enforce the offer. They say, "What offer?" You say, "the written offer that accompanied some copies of your product." You can't cite the text of the written offer, you can't specify any specific person they made the offer to. It is totally reasonable to construe "any third party" to mean that the offer can't specify that it's only vaild for certain particular individuals. In fact, I always understood simply to mean that you couldn't limit the offer to only the purchaser (assuming the product was sold). What would the purpose be of a "written offer" (and why would you have to "accompany" the object code with it?) if not that the offer is an enforceable 'coupon'? Why wouldn't the GPL just say that you have to "provide any third party with a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code". Why specify a written offer if it just meant that you had to offer it? DS - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/