GPL with the Classpath exception - clarification needed

David Woolley forums at david-woolley.me.uk
Sat Mar 28 10:13:15 UTC 2009


Philippe Verdy wrote:

> 
> In both cases, you don't have to deliver the sources at the same time within
> your installation package. But beware: posting your precompiled program even
> as a freeware or as a "shareware" on a generic download site like
> download.com must be done so that the dowaloadable package can only come

Unless they have changed since I last used them, download.com is rather 
an interesting case, because it is only a cataloguing site, it never 
actually physically handles the copyrighted source code and executables.

Although the name and the user interface give the impression that they 
actually hold an archive of the code, all that it actually did when I 
used it was to return a redirect to somewhere that really held the material.

I personally felt the approach was rather dishonest, as they seemed to 
me to go out of their way to make it appear that they actually hold the 
archives.


> with an access to the sources. Many GPLed programs on downlad.com do not
> provide the required written offer to get the sources, even though they
> declare being GPLed.
> 


-- 
David Woolley
Emails are not formal business letters, whatever businesses may want.
RFC1855 says there should be an address here, but, in a world of spam,
that is no longer good advice, as archive address hiding may not work.



More information about the License-discuss mailing list