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's product is really a whole bunch of other peoples products that RedHat has gathered to use, just like SUSE, Debian, Gentoo, etc. Red Hat does pay many developers and they do create lots of content for many GPL programs. They add much value to the products that they use. They should be commended for their work by the open source community. The CentOS project is very appreciative of Red Hat's open source policies. RedHat is required to release it's source files to it's customers ... that is anyone who has obtained their product legally and asks for a copy of the source files. > > 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? RedHat is only required to give their sources to their customers ... but so long as all trademark guidelines are followed, others who have any obtained any GPL products can modify them as allowed by the GPL. > > There is some legal arguments that force the redhat's sources to be released. > Yes, the GPL, to their customers. > Is redhat's sources released by its kindness or because there is some > legal document that enforced that. > Their standing up a totally free SRPMS server released to the general public is not required. The fact that Red Hat does this when other enterprise vendors (like Novell/SUSE, Mandriva, etc.) do not should also be appreciated by the open source community. It is certainly appreciated by the CentOS Project. > 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 ? I do not think that RH is going to close their sources. If they were to do so, they would still have to give them to customers. CentOS developers do have paid access to the source code. > > Have we some guarantee that redhat will not close the srpms and the > rebuilding will be safe ?. There are never any guarantees in life ... ask the former Enron employees. So long as RedHat uses GPL products they will be required to give the SRPMS to customers and they can not restrict what the customers do with GPL source code ... except as it relates to their trademarks. > > What does CentOS mean with: CentOS has no relationship with Red > Hat(r), Inc. or RHEL. It means that the CentOS project is not in any way affiliated with RedHat. RedHat does not give us advise, they don't tell us anything that they don't tell the general public, they don't give us money, they don't give us equipment, they don't help us build or distribute CentOS. They provide SRPMS via the GPL to the public ... we take those publicly available sources, follow their rules concerning trademarks, and make CentOS. Fedora Core is affiliated with Red Hat (as an example). Red Hat provides Fedora with servers, allows Fedora to host things at redhat.com, etc. I think our FAQ on this issue is quite clear: http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=13 > > 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. > CentOS does not distribute our product in any places where the United States export laws prohibit distribution. > 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. Thanks, Johnny Hughes
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