Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 28th Jun 2006 22:23 UTC
Could many smaller Linux distributions be in violation of the GPL? That's what Warren Woodford, the man behind the popular MEPIS distribution thinks. As detailed in Bruce Byfield's excellent NewsForge story, "A GPL requirement could have a chilling effect on derivative distro", Woodford recently ran afoul of the GNU GPL (General Public License) requirement that downstream distributors of GPL code are obligated to provide source code to users in an easily accessible format.
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Member since:
2005-07-08
Let me first state in no uncertain terms that Mr. Woodford is not only clearly in the wrong, but that he is making a really big deal about what amounts to an extremely small effort in the interest of protecting free software. He even went so far as to claim that he literally loses sleep worrying about how he's going to comply with the requirements of the GPL, so as responsible citizens of the free software community, we should reach out and try to help him get his 8 hours.
Let's start by explaining that all he needs to do to comply with the GPL is to put a statement on the download page or in the release notes that says: "MEPIS will be glad to provide source packages upon request for any binary packages distributed by the MEPIS Project under the GPL." As MEPIS is a small distributor, we can prevent some unnecessary nightmares by also informing him that MEPIS can even charge a reasonable fee for providing a download or shipped medium containing the requested source packages.
For the sake of his physical and mental well-being, I'm going to make sure that Mr. Woodford understands the license he's using to distribute MEPIS. Considering how easy and non-expensive it would be to comply, it's really a shame that he's not getting a good night's sleep.
However, we should be careful not to flood Mr. Woodford's inbox with comforting advice on the provisions of the GPL, as it is possible to go to far with our therapy and trigger any latent narcoleptic tendencies he might have.