[Gllug] Some Advice on SUS licencing.

[Roger Whittaker]

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Andrew Halliwell wrote:

> And verily, didst Alistair Mann announce to the hordes:
> > The GPL v2 provision 1 clearly allows anyone to make a copy of software 
> > covered by the GPL and specifically /allows/ you to charge whatever you like 
> > either for supplying a warranty or for "the physical act of transferring". 
> 
> Yes, true, but...
> SuSE contains yast, yast does not fall under the GPL. By all means, copy
> everything on the SuSE CDs except for yast and other support files.
> 
> You could give that away for free or at a price if you wanted, but it
> wouldn't be SuSE anymore.
>  
> > David was right: he can copy his friend's CD, support free, without paying 
> > Suse a penny. Similarly, David's friend can charge him whatever he fancies 
> > for handing him that CD, a charge which will no doubt include his costs in 
> > labour, media, whatever.
> 
> Incorrect.
> Just because most of the packages in a distribution are GPL does NOT make
> the whole distro GPL.

Please see my previous mail.  Roughly: you can copy SUSE CDs, but you
can't copy them and then sell the copies.  The yast licence is fairly 
clear: 
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.0/COPYRIGHT.yast



-- 
-----------------------------------------
Roger Whittaker  Technical Consultant
SUSE LINUX Ltd   Appleton House 
139 King Street Hammersmith London W6 9JG
tel +44(0) 20 8846 3923 
mob +44(0) 7866 602 434
fax +44(0) 20 8748 0538 
roger.whittaker at suse.com
-----------------------------------------
simply change to http://www.suse.com
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