Dell is not distributing sources for Dell Streak Linux kernel

[Neil Brown]

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On 11 Sep 2010, at 13:55, Florian Weimer wrote:

> I assumed that the situation in the U.S. would be similar because as a
> matter of doctrine, you don't want to reinterpret existing contracts
> so that a written form requirement can be fulfilled by a flippant mail
> message or blog post.

Most of the contracts on which I have worked contain notice clauses, which are very specific as to the mechanisms by which key information must be notified - detailing form of delivery, and address, for example.

I gave a presentation on this, and other, aspects of GPL compliance to an audience of specialist open source lawyers (part of the FSF Europe's legal workstream) earlier in the year, and didn't receive any push-back on the notion that "writing" includes electronic notification, for the purposes of including a written offer to provide source code as part of a downloadable package, although, of course, there could have been differences of opinion of which I'm not aware.

Certainly, jurisdictional interpretation may mean that this a variable situation, but, I would regard use of an electronic notice file as within both the wording and the spirit of GNU GPL 2.0 and 3.0.



Regards

Neil

__________

Neil Brown
neil at neilzone.co.uk | http://neilzone.co.uk



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