On Monday 17 November 2003 17:04, Alex Daniloff wrote:
Harmut, Could you please point me to the legal sources of your statements listed below. In the link you've provided there is nothing said that you can't use SuSE distribution as a back end for your commercial software. I don't believe that SUSE is paying to all the developers whose GPL applications you're binding with your distribution. Therefore, how in legal terms you can impose any limitations or restrictions on people who use SUSE distribution for whatever business purposes? Isn't it a contradiction to GPL?
I don't know about SuSE in particular, but I've studied the GPL. The distinction is that distributions are not incorporating the GPL'ed applications into other non-GPL'ed applications, and technically they are charging money for the packaging, distribution, support, installer scripts, etc. and not for the GPL'ed applications themselves. If you link your non-GPL'ed application against GPL'ed libraries, you are in clear violation. If you use GPL'ed programs as separate binaries along with your non-GPL'ed application, a case can be made for this not violating the GPL. Where you will run into trouble with what you want to do are the SuSE installer scripts, and other contributions by them. You might have better luck either pulling down a bunch of CVS trees and making your own distribution, or at least starting with something like gentoo where there's not much there but actual GPL applications and a few shell scripts. ------------------------------------------------------------------- DDDD David Kramer http://thekramers.net DK KD There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The DKK D knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground DK KD and miss. All it requires is simply the ability to throw DDDD yourself forward with all weight, and the willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt. That is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground. Douglas Adams, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".