Re: logos and GPL (was Re: [DotGNU]DotGNU Posters project)

[Norbert Bollow]

Rhys Weatherley <address@hidden> wrote:

> > Speaking of which, we can't very well include a copy of the GPL with
> > each of these posters, can we?  So what is the resolution for this
> > problem?
> 
> A small footnote saying that the logo is GPL and pointing people to
> the FSF's  Web site should fix this.

No that's not good enough.  In section 1 of the GPL there's an
explicit requirement to "give any other recipients of the Program a
copy of this License along with the Program."

> There are plenty of cases of software being distributed without a
> complete copy of the GPL - binary rpm's for example.

Most of the binary RPMs which I'm using came on a CD which has GPL in
a file named COPYING.  I also downloaded quite a few from an ftp server
which also has the GPL in a similarly-named file.

However, distributing RPMs of GPL'd software without distributing a
copy of the GPL along with it would be a license violation.

Note that for binary rpm's there is an additional requirement that
you must either also distribute source code with the binary, or a
written promise to distribute source code upon request.

BTW violations of these terms are considered a serious matter by the
FSF and probably also by many other copyright holders of GPL'd
software.

Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
Founder & Steering Committee member of http://gnu.org/projects/dotgnu/
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59        Fax +41 1 972 20 69       http://norbert.ch