[ILUG] RMS: KDE in violation of GPL

[Paul Jakma]

On Wed, 6 Sep 2000, Wesley Darlington wrote:

> More generally, if you make modifications, you are only obliged to give
> the source to people you give the binary to. 
> 

actually i /think/ that that is a myth:

"2b: You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part
thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties
under the terms of this License."

so if i distribute modified version a GPL app to *anybody*, then i
automatically have licenced my modified app to *everyone*.

so if kev finds that joe has a modified version of his modified work
given to joe by justin then kev (and ray and john and
...) automatically have a licence to that modified work.

also: 

"6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from
the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program
subject to these terms and conditions."

so if i mod kevin's acme app, and give a copy to joe bloggs, then joe
bloggs has a licence from kevin, not me. 

> If I don't give anybody a modified binary, I don't have to give them the
> modified source.

yep.

> If I /do/ give somebody a modified binary, I have to
> give them the source if they ask for it. 
> 

nope.. it seems you give a licence to one, you have given a licence to
all.

> And I can't place any restrictions on what they can do with said source,
> except for the same gpl stuff as was imposed on me...?

you can place nothing on them except the original licence as their
licence is from the original licensor of the work.

> 
> Wesley.
> 
> 

--paulj

uhmmm... IANAL :)