Free Software and Public Performance

[Mark Koek]

David Johnson wrote:
[...]
> To play devil's advocate here, consider the following real life
> situation. Someone installs GIMP on a server, writes an HTML front end.
> Users can log on and for $1 create a personalized web banner. Should
> the server operator have a legal obligation to provide the sources for
> GIMP? For his own CGI scripts?
> 
> Another: Should a university that allows remote login to its network be
> legally required to make available all the sources for the GNU tools
> provided?

I would ask the 'reverse question': why not?

The university that provides GNU tools and the company that provides the
GIMP could just point to the obvious places for the sources.

The interesting question is about the modifications they might make. If
they have enhanced the GIMP, to get an 'edge' over a competitor who is
doing the same, should they make their modifications available?

I believe they should. Otherwise, if this remote serving becomes common
practice (which is definitely possible), GPL'd works could be taken
proprietary this way.


Mark Koek