On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 9:58 PM, Chris Perkins <cperkins@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Let's look at this at a slighty different way. Let's say someone writes > a GUI wrapper for Git, bundles it with Git, and then offers for sale a > new proprietary SVC system. They list off all the wonderful features > that it has. On the back page of their website is a small 'Licenses' > disclosure and the source code to Git comes with the download buried in > a subdirectory. None of the users realize the software is using Git. > > Is that a violation of the GPL? I would say that it absolutely is. It absolutely is not. Lots of companies do this, and it is perfectly kosher -- either bundle the src somewhere or offer a link to download the source somewhere. While IANAL, and specifically not _your_ lawyer, I have been in this field for >10 years, and studied law @ masters level on software licensing. You are reading the GPL wrong, and you're not aware of widespread industry practices around it. Anyone who is curious about this gitbox thing, and interested in *facts* instead of fiction, could advance our knowledge with a simple procedure: - Download the "free" version (or payfor the paid version!). It's a zipfile, no need to hurt any Macs. - See if it includes the src or a link to download the src -- it will probably be in a corner of the documentation or license. Maybe there's an offer to provide the src in a different way, but a download link is the usual trick. - Does the link work? Can you effectively get the src? - Does the src match the binaries you got? cheers, m -- martin.langhoff@xxxxxxxxx martin@xxxxxxxxxx -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html