delaying source release... gpl conform?

[Peter Roozemaal]

Armijn Hemel wrote:

>>if a company distributing GPL-derived embedded products, where they stated 
>>publicly that they use GPL software and will release the source in some 
>>near future time, since they have "some copyright problems" with some of 
>>their "other binaries".
>>They even provide an open forum to support their firmware, and keep on 
>>promising on the forum that they will release the source asap (which is 
>>already months ago now).
>>
>>Is this "conform" to GPL?
> 
> Well, the answer is clear: it's not.

What's your opinion based upon?

Let's cite the GPL:

3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under
Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to
give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically
performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the
corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

If you provide a "written offer" with your distribution the GPL says
that you should ship the source code when asked for it; it doesn't
specify that you should do it overnight. I think that it would be very
reasonable to allow a company to collect requests and ship once a week.
Dragging the process more than a month, smells like GPL abuse to me.

Greetings,
	Peter.