On Fri, 2006-08-18 at 15:38 -0400, Alain Reguera wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've been talking with some friends about the Redhat's SRPMs release
> issue. I've been reading the trademarks and some points of GPL. But
> get some confusion around the questions:
>
> Is redhat forced to release the sources of its product?
RedHat choose to use and release GPL code and a requirement of that is
the making available of the source code. RedHat are good in this regard
and do this willingly with no great fuss.
> Is redhat forced, due GPL licence, to make the sources of its product
> available to others (including those who don't buy the distro), and
> permit changes whenever the trademark guidelines were respected?
>
> There is some legal arguments that force the redhat's sources to be released.
>
> Is redhat's sources released by its kindness or because there is some
> legal document that enforced that.
>
See answer above.
> In a past post, I read that even if redhat close the distro, it has to
> release the sources to the client how buy the distro, so he/she would
> rebuild it and release a new one based on it as totally free. So, will
> CentOS have to buy the redhat distro to rebuild it and release it for
> free to the community in a close case ?
>
A requirement of the GPL is to provide the source upon request - no
matter who requests it. As I stated previously, RedHat are good in this
regard and do this willingly with no great fuss placing it on their ftp
making requests unnecessary.
> Have we some guarantee that redhat will not close the srpms and the
> rebuilding will be safe ?.
>
RedHat have always publicly stated its support for Open Source and the
freedom it provides. Hopefully no future events make them evaluate their
position.
> What does CentOS mean with: CentOS has no relationship with Red
> Hat(r), Inc. or RHEL.
>
Johnny would be best to answer this one.
However, I think you want to know if CentOS has any form of relationship
with RedHat Inc. - That would be a no.
> What happen with those countries that are not allowed to use redhat,
> can they use CentOS ? does redhat want this ? is this permitted by
> some legal argument.
>
This one is for a person in a specific country to check out for
themselves. RHEL and CentOS and separate entities and must be regarded
as this when checking against any individual countries laws for download
and usage.
> I'll really appreciate your comments about this, feel like I am in a
> neuronal crusade with this topic.
>
> my Regards to you and your Time
> Al.
Regards
Phil
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