Mario Lombardo wrote:
> Can someboday help me here? Can this company/guy really do this? I
> guess one could make a proprietary "OS" using the GPL'd Linux kernel.
> I'm still doubtful though. Icky proprietary. Yuk!
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Ralph Hargis <ralph@serverelements.com>
> Date: Mar 24, 2007 8:14 PM
> Subject: Re: Other/Proprietary License??
> To: Mario Lombardo <lombardom@users.sourceforge.net>
>
>
> No mistake.
>
>
>
> On Mar 24, 2007, at 2:00 PM, Mario Lombardo wrote:
>>
>> Message body follows:
>>
>> NASLite NAS Server Operating System
>> Project Admins: serverelements
>> Operating System: Linux
>> License: Other/Proprietary License
>> Category: File Sharing, Networking, Linux (Suggest?)
>>
>> Is this a mistake because how can this be when Linux is GPL?
>>
IANAL. But no, you cannot take GPL software and *legally* make it what
we think of as "proprietary". If you make modifications to it, and you
distribute the result, you must make those modifications available to
those to whom you distribute the software. Moreover, you also implicitly
grant them the right to distribute those modifications and any they make
with the same software. That's the essence of the GPL.
Now, like Red Hat, you *sell* your software. But you must make the
source available so that someone else can distribute the same software,
which is what made possible CentOS when Red Hat dropped their desktop
and started pushing RHEL. Red Hat gets away with selling RHEL by virtue
of their cashet as an enterprise player and by virtue of the support
they offer. Even though CentOS as about the same (or perhaps better)
software available for free.
One of the thornier issues that arises is what happens when you bundle
non-GPL software with GPL software, and the way in which you bundle it.
This leads to the ongoing kernel developers' debate about proprietary
kernel modules. The GPL apparently doesn't precisely define this area,
so it's open to some debate.
Then there are folks like Linspire and Xandros, who use the GPLed Linux
OS, but bundle it with proprietary applications and modules and such.
You can still get source code, except for the proprietary bits. And they
don't make it easy to redistribute the same software. In fact, doing so
would not only violate their agreements with the vendors supplying the
proprietary bits, but the trademarks of companies like Xandros and
Linspire. In a similar way, CentOS can't call what it does "Red Hat",
even though it's all the same software. That's also the reason the name
"Fedora" was created for "community-developed" software using the Red
Hat code base.
I wouldn't worry too much, though. The FSF is fairly vigorous about
going after folks who attempt to taint GPL software. Mostly such cases
are settled without litigation.
Paul
-- Paul M. Foster ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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