 | | | license of Red Hat enterprise products | license of Red Hat enterprise products 2003-11-03 - By Joshua Jensen
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On Mon, Nov 03, 2003 at 04:07:31PM -0600, Tom 'spot ' Callaway wrote:
> I am not a lawyer. Let me repeat, I am not a lawyer. I suggest you get
> one or consult with the one you have to get an answer that will hold up
> in court.
>
> In the US, when you purchase RHEL AS 2.1, you agree to this license
> agreement:
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us_2-1.html?country=United+States&
>
> It says "If Customer wishes to increase the number of Installed System,
> then Customer will purchase from Red Hat additional Services for each
> additional Installed System. "
>
> Hence, there is a 1:1 relationship for RHEL installations to RHEL
> Subscriptions, and you would be in violation of the RHEL 2.1 License
> agreement.
I 'm not a lawyer either. But I can read section 3 of
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html,
and there I read:
"You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under
Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following... "
The three following bullet points that qualify as "one of the following "
go on to say that you must provide the source code, or at least offer to
provide it, to anyone that you give the binaries too.
So, as far as the GPL 'ed bits go, my non-legal interpretation (that you
shouldn 't trust) is that you have every right to use any GPL binary bits
you get from RHN or anywhere else. The fact that you get GPL 'ed
binaries from Red Hat CDs or RHN does not and can not change the fact
that they are still GPL 'ed. In fact, from the same RHEL licenses that
Tom quotes, I see this:
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a modular operating system made up of
hundreds of individual software components, each of which was
individually written and copyrighted, and the EULA of each component is
located in the source code for the component. Throughout this document
the components are referred to as the "Linux Programs. " Most of the
Linux Programs are licensed pursuant to a Linux EULA that permits
Customer to copy, modify, and redistribute the software, in both source
code and binary code forms. With the exception of certain image files
identified below, the remaining Linux Programs are freeware or have been
placed in the public domain. "
*Notice* however that your right to use RHN or Red Hat 's Support
Services is granted only by Red Hat, not the GPL :-). Also notice
(again) that I am not giving you or anyone any legal advice, as I Am Not
a Lawyer.
--
Joshua Jensen
joshua@(protected)
Fax: 503 213 7257
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