What is considered off-site usage?

[Matthew Flaschen]

Dirk Dierickx wrote:
> At my workplace we're still having problems with the GPL licensed 
> software, just now we had to take down a wiki because it was GPL 
> licensed.

First, IANAL and TINLA.  No one on this list is going to give you legal 
advice specific to your situation.

That said, the wiki thing doesn't make any sense to me, unless it was 
Affero GPL.

> As we work with contractors a lot, local as well based in India, and 
> legal has expressed their concerns with the GPL and contractors in 
> specific, this faq entry is interesting.
> 
> It's important that 'off-site distribution' is defined correctly.

There's nothing about "site" in GPL 2 or 3; that's just an example, 
useful or not.  It only depends whether the contractor is considered a 
separate entity.  GPLv3 attempts to address this more clearly, by 
creating a contractor exception.

> A local on-site contractor will be no problem in this case

That's not necessarily correct.  It may still count as distribution.

Matt Flaschen