GPL "grey area" questions

[Brett Smith]

Hi David,

On Tue, Sep 26, 2006 at 12:57:03PM -0400, David A. Desrosiers wrote:
> 1.) Are they required to ship the COPYING file with their rebranded
> version of our application? 

A copy of the GPL should accompany the software whenever it's distributed,
whether verbatim or modified, whether in source or binary form.  There at
least two acceptable ways to do this: include the license in a file along
with the rest of the software, or provide a printed copy of the license
when you ship the software.

Certainly, it's not acceptable to have people download the source before
they get the license.  Otherwise, they may not realize they're entitled to
it.

> 2.) Are they required to display the GPL before the application is
> installed, to give the user a chance to decline the installation based
> on that license? 

No.  In fact, FSF recommends against putting the GPL in a click-through;
see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#ClickThrough>.  Think of it
this way: does your typical GNU/Linux distribution require you to accept
the GPL?  :)

> 3.) Are they allowed to "compile" the actual GPL text itself into a
> self-installing Windows executable, such that it requires you to launch
> and run the executable before you can view the license? 

I suspect that depends on what the executable does, and what you have to do
to get the license out of it.  If the executable is the installer, and it
prominently displays the license, I think that's probably fine.  If the
executable is the program itself, and the license is tucked away deep in
menus so it's hard to find, that's probably not okay.  This is a very gray
area.

> 4.) Is it sufficient to say "We got this code over here to make this
> product. You can go over there too and get your own copies." Or are they
> supposed to provide their OWN versions of the modified code, no matter
> how minor the modifications are?

It is not.  Fair's fair: everybody who distributes the program has to
provide the source on their own as well.

I hope this helps clear things up for you.

Best regards,

-- 
Brett Smith
Licensing Compliance Engineer, Free Software Foundation