Hi List, I am sure that this topic must have been hashed and rehashed many times before on this list. Since I have rejoined only recently after a couple of years of absence I beg everyone's pardon for bringing it up, but I'd like to get the license conditions of the SuSE pro box sets straight. This has come up in a recent discussion in my LUG as our annual installfest is approaching. I guess the relevant license terms are stated here: http://www.suse.com/us/private/support/licenses/yast.html Not being a lawyer, I'd like to make sure I understand it correctly and keep myself as well as others in our LUG within the limits of the license. So here are my/our questions: 1. Is it okay to purchase one box set and run SuSE linux on several machines I own? 2. What about sharing the CD set with other people without being paid by them in any form? This question pertains to us potentially using SuSE 9.0 in our upcoming installfest. 3. Can I let a friend borrow the CDs so he can burn copies of them? 4. What about if he uses my CDs to install the software and then copies the contents on his HD? 5. Finally, there are usually some programs that are not put on the ftp server due to license restrictions. I suppose that more severe restrictions apply to these packages, so that they are not supposed to be shared? IF that is true, how would we be able to tell these packages apart from others? Thank you very much for any helpful official or semi-official pointers on this. Best regards, Alex.
On Tuesday 28 October 2003 7:52 pm, Alex Angerhofer wrote:
Hi List,
I am sure that this topic must have been hashed and rehashed many times before on this list. Since I have rejoined only recently after a couple of years of absence I beg everyone's pardon for bringing it up, but I'd like to get the license conditions of the SuSE pro box sets straight. This has come up in a recent discussion in my LUG as our annual installfest is approaching. I guess the relevant license terms are stated here: http://www.suse.com/us/private/support/licenses/yast.html Not being a lawyer, I'd like to make sure I understand it correctly and keep myself as well as others in our LUG within the limits of the license. So here are my/our questions: 1. Is it okay to purchase one box set and run SuSE linux on several machines I own? 2. What about sharing the CD set with other people without being paid by them in any form? This question pertains to us potentially using SuSE 9.0 in our upcoming installfest. 3. Can I let a friend borrow the CDs so he can burn copies of them? 4. What about if he uses my CDs to install the software and then copies the contents on his HD? 5. Finally, there are usually some programs that are not put on the ftp server due to license restrictions. I suppose that more severe restrictions apply to these packages, so that they are not supposed to be shared? IF that is true, how would we be able to tell these packages apart from others?
Thank you very much for any helpful official or semi-official pointers on this.
Best regards, Alex.
Hey there, It's extremely important to have this kind of issues clear for the peace of mind of all users. A few days ago we got into the same (long) discusion on the SuSE Linux Spanish list, we focused our discusion in the legal issues of using ISO images (of a boxed version) downloaded from the internet, we manage to find a 'response' from a SuSE employee that said: "It would be complicated for companies like SuSE to survive in the market if the people starts to put their ISO images on the internet. Therefore, we strongly discourage this practices. But is not ilegal. To take this kind of practices as ilegal would be like going against the Open Source Community spirit." Full text in spanish here: http://vivalinux.com.ar/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2495 I think this is somehow related to your questions, anyway, it would be VERY wise to ask SuSE directly, once again, about this issues and make the response available to all the users and public. As a matter of fact SuSE SHOULD make a page on their site stating clearly the 'official' policy about this kind of questions! Peace out! -- Sergio Espinoza Dien linux@sergioespinoza.com http://www.sergioespinoza.com/ http://www.xtremecode.net/ Linux User #328168 *Delivered by Kmail
Just to make it clear as well, if you do this be sure yo tell the users that no official support is available from SuSE. At our last installfest we did the samething and believe it or not we did have a bunch of users go to best buy and get a CD set Sergio Espinoza Dien wrote:
On Tuesday 28 October 2003 7:52 pm, Alex Angerhofer wrote:
Hi List,
I am sure that this topic must have been hashed and rehashed many times before on this list. Since I have rejoined only recently after a couple of years of absence I beg everyone's pardon for bringing it up, but I'd like to get the license conditions of the SuSE pro box sets straight. This has come up in a recent discussion in my LUG as our annual installfest is approaching. I guess the relevant license terms are stated here: http://www.suse.com/us/private/support/licenses/yast.html Not being a lawyer, I'd like to make sure I understand it correctly and keep myself as well as others in our LUG within the limits of the license. So here are my/our questions: 1. Is it okay to purchase one box set and run SuSE linux on several machines I own? 2. What about sharing the CD set with other people without being paid by them in any form? This question pertains to us potentially using SuSE 9.0 in our upcoming installfest. 3. Can I let a friend borrow the CDs so he can burn copies of them? 4. What about if he uses my CDs to install the software and then copies the contents on his HD? 5. Finally, there are usually some programs that are not put on the ftp server due to license restrictions. I suppose that more severe restrictions apply to these packages, so that they are not supposed to be shared? IF that is true, how would we be able to tell these packages apart from others?
Thank you very much for any helpful official or semi-official pointers on this.
Best regards, Alex.
Hey there,
It's extremely important to have this kind of issues clear for the peace of mind of all users. A few days ago we got into the same (long) discusion on the SuSE Linux Spanish list, we focused our discusion in the legal issues of using ISO images (of a boxed version) downloaded from the internet, we manage to find a 'response' from a SuSE employee that said: "It would be complicated for companies like SuSE to survive in the market if the people starts to put their ISO images on the internet. Therefore, we strongly discourage this practices. But is not ilegal. To take this kind of practices as ilegal would be like going against the Open Source Community spirit."
Full text in spanish here: http://vivalinux.com.ar/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2495
I think this is somehow related to your questions, anyway, it would be VERY wise to ask SuSE directly, once again, about this issues and make the response available to all the users and public.
As a matter of fact SuSE SHOULD make a page on their site stating clearly the 'official' policy about this kind of questions!
Peace out!
It's extremely important to have this kind of issues clear for the peace of mind of all users. A few days ago we got into the same (long) discusion on the SuSE Linux Spanish list, we focused our discusion in the legal issues of using ISO images (of a boxed version) downloaded from the internet, we manage to find a 'response' from a SuSE employee that said: "It would be complicated for companies like SuSE to survive in the market if the people starts to put their ISO images on the internet. Therefore, we strongly discourage this practices. But is not ilegal. To take this kind of practices as ilegal would be like going against the Open Source Community spirit."
That's a common sense sort of response. SUSE ISOs, including DVD images, are all over the P2P networks. As long as it's not for charge (always the case) and the more restricted packages are removed (never the case) it's legal AFAIK. It requires a lot of patience to download that much data from a P2P network, which is a good reason not to get it that way IMHO! --
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1. Is it okay to purchase one box set and run SuSE linux on several machines I own?
Yes, that's allowed.
2. What about sharing the CD set with other people without being paid by them in any form? This question pertains to us potentially using SuSE 9.0 in our upcoming installfest.
No problem.
3. Can I let a friend borrow the CDs so he can burn copies of them?
Yes you can, as long as he doesn't copy any software on the disks which have licences which disallow it. See the last point.
4. What about if he uses my CDs to install the software and then copies the contents on his HD?
Same answer as for 3).
5. Finally, there are usually some programs that are not put on the ftp server due to license restrictions. I suppose that more severe restrictions apply to these packages, so that they are not supposed to be shared? IF that is true, how would we be able to tell these packages apart from others?
You need to read the licences of all the packages which you want to share. They all have different licences, so you have to check each and every one to ensure what you're doing is allowed. Honestly, that's the only way know for sure. I've read a few of them, and so far I've not found one which prevents distribution of the associated package to a third party on a personal and not for charge basis. Many - most - don't allow distribution to "the public" which means you can't put them on a public FTP server. Many don't allow distribution by any electronic means, which means you can't put them on a private FTP server either. That's why they don't appear on SUSE's FTP servers. However, let's be practical for a moment. All the software vendors who allow SUSE to distribute their products know what they're getting into. They know the sharing community Linux people work in. The vast majority of them will allow you to download the same software from their FTP server for free, even if they won't let SUSE mirror it on theirs. It's a control thing, rather than a money thing. In practice, giving copies of the disks directly to known third parties in return for no charge is acceptable and commonplace. All the above is covered by the usual "my humble opinion" and "I am not a lawyer" types of disclaimers. --
eatapple core dump
participants (4)
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Alex Angerhofer
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Derek Fountain
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Roberto J. Dohnert
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Sergio Espinoza Dien