[Sussex] Access to RHEL updates without subscription

[Paul Tansom]

On Tue, 2005-05-31 at 11:08 +0100, Chris Jones wrote:
> Hi
> 
> On Tue, 31 May, 2005 8:35, Jon Fautley said:
> > Checking my email address, you'll see that I'm obliged to inform you that
> 
> Checking your .sig I see you work in sales, thus you are obliged to tell
> us whatever makes RH more money, so I don't believe you ;)
> 
> > copying packages from another system to one without a valid subscription
> > is in breach of the licence agreement that was signed when you subscribed
> > your systems to the Red Hat Network...
> 
> Is not the kernel I am running GPL? If so (and it is) I can give a copy of
> it to anyone I like. The same goes for any GPL software I am running. A
> license with RH does not (and indeed, cannot) affect that, surely?

Hmm, interesting point. The GPL is applying to the source code and
allows for charging for distribution of the software. I've not read up
on where you stand on the distribution of a pre-compiled copy of GPL'd
software. I've not actually read the RHN license agreement. From Jon's
comment I assume that it specifically states that the subscription is
for use on a single machine, but whether it is able to limit what you do
with the binary RPM once it is on your machine I've not looked into, the
same may be said of the SRPM file as well. I believe that you can
compile a CD full of GPL software and copyright the CD ISO, so someone
could create a new one with all the same software on it, but not copy
your ISO directly. All this legal stuff give me a headache though!!!

-- 
Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. | http://www.aptanet.com/