Ignoring the repetition on who is entitled to source code and how they are told about it, I would like to know the answers to some very specific, tangible matters closer to home. My question is basically whether the terms of a GPL license attached to a software distribution are applicable to that software distribution, not just downstream derivatives of it. I assume the answer is yes.
- Dennis WHY I ASK I have a copy of LibreOffice 3.3.2 installed on my computer. I am looking for any place that I am offered access to the specific (or, indeed, any) source code for the LibreOffice 3.3.2 distribution that I have installed (en-win-x86). Looking at the Help | License Information ... tells me about licenses and where to find them, but nothing about source code. If I give this to my friends, none of them will see anything about source code either. If I examine the license, I see that LGPL3 incorporates terms of the GPL3 by reference, and license follows immediately thereafter. The LGPL3 has definitions about source code and it being conveyed. The GPL3 has the details. The preface to the GPL sys that "Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things." Section 6, which applies to the non-source form of the LibreOffice 3.3.2 that I installed specifies a number of ways that source code is still to be made available. 6(d) seems applicable to the way I obtained LibreOffice 3.3.2 by download: "d) Convey the object code by offering access from a designated place (gratis or for a charge), and offer equivalent access to the Corresponding Source in the same way through the same place at no further charge. ..." SO WHERE IS IT? I know of no offer conveyed with the code. If I go back to the site, all I see are 3.3.3 Final and 3.4.0 Final. I see nothing that would allow me to re-retrieve or find the source of the 3.3.2 that I have in my possession. If I follow the "Download the source code to build your own installer" (why does that have to be the reason?), I see a set of logs that tell me nothing. Under 3.4.1.1, 3.4.0.2, and 3.3.3.1 I see lists of 20-21 tar.bz2's. Well, maybe that qualifies. Maybe not. But what about for my 3.3.2? AND ABOUT THOSE DEPENDENCIES If any of the listed dependencies also have derivatives used, is there some place where, ahem, those modified sources are available in some suitable way? -----Original Message----- From: Simos Xenitellis [mailto:simos.li...@googlemail.com] Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 13:49 To: discuss@documentfoundation.org Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC about GPL enforcement (Was: Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: [Libreoffice] Proposal to join Apache OpenOffice) On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 9:59 PM, BRM <bm_witn...@yahoo.com> wrote: > ----- Original Message ---- > >> From: Simos Xenitellis <simos.li...@googlemail.com> ... >> Your views are not mainstream; if you want to gain traction, you should make >>the effort >> to subscribe to the gpl-violations.org mailing list and discuss these views >>there. > > Doesn't have to be mainstream. As I said - there is a very common > misconception > on the issue. > I have moved the discussion to the gpl-violations legal mailing list, http://lists.gpl-violations.org/pipermail/legal/2011-June/002872.html Anyone can subscribe at http://lists.gpl-violations.org/mailman/listinfo/legal Simos -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
