Hi,
Neil Brown wrote:
> > We've contacted Linksys tech support and they claim that they /"used
> > to"/ provide the source code upon request. However, the support
> > person claimed that because the router has been EOL ("End of Life")
> > for 3 years, they are unable to provide us with the source code.
>
> Section 3b of GNU GPL 2.0 offers the "written offer" mechanism for
> distributing binaries:
>
> Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years,
> to give any third party...
I wonder if this will become more common as the age of hardware with
GPL'd software increases. The free-software community is used to their
source archives living around forever but companies might easily stop
providing the source for various reasons; link rot, re-designed site,
takeover, or clean-up when three years is reached.
I don't suppose http://archive.org/ captures them all. Do we need a
central archive of companies' releases or are they of little value after
three years of the device not shipping? (I'm using quite a bit of
hardware older than that.)
Cheers, Ralph.
