[Novalug] RedHat ELS and GPL

greg pryzby greg@pryzby.org
Sun Dec 4 10:31:04 EST 2011


I am answering based on MY UNDERSTANDING and NOT as an official
spokesperson or representative.

My understanding is the GPL requires the person who has paid for a
product to request the code. The person/company requesting the code
can do what they want.

So, the clones actually exist because RHT releases the code to anyone,
even those who do not pay. That is above and beyond the requirements
of the GPL.

Paragraph 4 GPLv2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html)
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.

IANAL or speaking for RHT.

On Sun, Dec 4, 2011 at 10:15 AM, John Place <jplace@unixsage.com> wrote:
> In my email this morning I got an EOL (End of Life) announcement for
> CentOS-4:
> http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2011-December/018285.html
>
> In the message they mention if you are unable or unwilling to upgrade to
> version 5 or 6 that you can get ELS (Extended Lifecycle Support) from
> RedHat. The thing I found interesting in this email was the paragraph:
>
> -------------------------8<--------------------------------------------
> Be advised that the upstream provider does NOT release their ELS source
> code publicly and therefore after February 29, 2012 they will no longer
> release security updates for their EL4 product line.
> ------------------------------------->8---------------------------------
>
> My understanding is that the GPL is responsible for "compeling" RedHat
> to release source code changes and this is what the "clone" projects
> (CentOS, ScientificLinux etc) recompile and and release. So my question
> is how do the ELS updates not apply to this same process?
>
> My question is purely academic, I am not running any RHEL-4 or CentOS-4
> servers..
>
> Note:
> I have no issue with RedHat or its business model, a matter of fact it
> is my opinion that Red Hat was a major contributor in making
> Linux/OpenSource a viable option in the business world.
>
> Thanks
> John
> _______________________________________________
> Novalug mailing list
> Novalug@calypso.tux.org
> http://calypso.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/novalug



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