1. Party A makes a GPL'ed program available, on two CDs. One has the program in binary form, and one has the source.
2. Party B obtains these CDs, and having no interest in the source code, gives the source CD away, or perhaps discards it. 3. Later, Party B no longer has a use for the program, so deletes all copies they have made of the binary CD, and then puts the binary CD up for sale. 4. Party C buys the binary CD. Question: who, if any, is obligated to provide source to Party C (if Party C wants it)? Party B. If B were selling a *modified* copy, or if B were making new copies and selling them, it would be different, but that's not the case here. Party B is distributing a verbatim copy, that it is or isn't a a new copy isn't relevant. | 3. 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: | a. Accompany it with the complete corresponding | machine-readable source code, which must be distributed | under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium | customarily used for software interchange; or, | b. Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three | years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than | your cost of physically performing source distribution, a | complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source | code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 | above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; | or, | c. Accompany it with the information you received as to the | offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This | alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution | and only if you received the program in object code or | executable form with such an offer, in accord with | Subsection b above.) | The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work | for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete | source code means all the source code for all modules it | contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus | the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the | executable. However, as a special exception, the source code | distributed need not include anything that is normally | distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major | components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system | on which the executable runs, unless that component itself | accompanies the executable. | If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering | access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent | access to copy the source code from the same place counts as | distribution of the source code, even though third parties are | not compelled to copy the source along with the object code. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss