Am Sonntag, den 08.02.2009, 02:57 +1100 schrieb Ben Klein:
And even if they are in some way vilolating the GPL by not hosting the operating systems source
Not the problem.
- Source of individual apps can be retrieved from appropriate
websites. As long as the websites are referenced in the distro's documentation of each app, they're within the grounds of GPL.
First, I am not a lawyer. But the GPL (version 2) says that you have to provide the source code *yourself*. Either by shipping it together with the binaries (section 3a) or by giving you a written offer that they will provide the sourcode to *anyone* who asks for it for a cost not higher than the costs of performing the distribution (section 3b). If you are a noncommercial entity (which iMagic OS definitely is not), passing on the written offer is also enough (section 3c). Finally, if you distribute by offering a download, you have to offer a source download *from the same place* (last paragraph of section 3).
- They don't have to license their own code written for the distro under GPL
Correct. But only if they don't link GPL libraries.
What it seems to me is that they are selling binaries, not support. They could be selling licenses (for Crossover, mp3 etc), but that's not a matter for us to resolve. If it is determined that what they are selling is binaries, then I'm almost certain that is a violation of GPL.
No, it is not. You may charge as much as you want for binaries of GPL programs. You just have to allow your clients to pass it on for free.
From memory, GPL allows you to charge for the cost of delivering the software (e.g. CD media, postage), but not the binaries themselves.
This just applies to the source code.
Regards, Michael Karcher