[ILUG] The old CD thread again {RHEL this time}

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Conor Daly (conor.daly_ilug at cod.homelinux.org):

> Further to this, I see that part 1 of the RHEL 'EULA' states:
> 
> 	"RHEL is a modular operating system consisting of hundreds of
> 	software components.  The end user license agreement for each
> 	component is located in the component's source code.  With the
> 	exception of certain image files identified in Section 2 below,
> 	the license terms for the components permit the Customer to copy,
> 	modify and redistribute the component......"
> 
> This suggests that RH have indeed included only redistributable software.
> I guess one should still read the individual components' license terms
> though...

It's certainly at least suggestive of what you're proposing is the case.

Since I figure I have your virtual ear, and you might have some RHEL n
(for various values of n) CDs handy, didn't RHEL at least use to come
with java-n.n.n-bea and java-n.n.n-ibm JRE packages -- where those firms
notoriously did _not_ grant the public any right of redistribution in
their JRE software?  I might have misheard -- or those might have been 
dropped after RHAS 2.1.

My recollection of those packages has been my biggest motivator in being
cautious about concluding that RHEL {3,4} consist (modulo trademark) only of
redistributable contents without a full licence audit.  E.g., you used
to need either the IBM or Sun JREs (the former included, I think; the
latter, not) to support Red Hat Cluster Manager.

I should hasten to say that I wouldn't doubt anyone for a moment, who
told me RH had eliminated those after 2.1:  The firm has shown
outstanding leadership in such areas, e.g., in pushing Mozilla Navigator
and Mail/News 0.9.x as a Netscape replacement ahead of almost everyone else.

-- 
Cheers,                 Katrina's Law:  Any sufficiently advanced incompetence
Rick Moen               is indistinguisable from malice.  
rick at linuxmafia.com                           (coinage attrib. to Paul Ciszek)