Subject: Source code for binaries offered at http://thinstall.com/ ?
From: Christopher Faylor <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 09:45:33 -0400

Hi,
I manage the cygwin project (I've cc'ed the project mailing list and the
reply-to is set to that list).  It has come to my attention that you are
offering binaries which use cygwin but you do not seem to be providing
any sources for download on your web site.

The GPL license requires you to provide the sources of any packages that
you distribute.  So, sources for gzip, less, bash, the Cygwin DLL, etc.
should be available via the same mechanism that you use to provide the
binaries.  You do need to provide sources for everything you distribute.
Just pointing people to other web sites is not sufficient.

In fact, it *seems* like the sources for your whole thinstall package
may also be necessary since it is bundled with, and appears to use,
other GPLed programs.

The GPL FAQ is located here:

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

It deals with all sorts of questions about distributing binaries and
sources.  In particular, a frequent response to this type of email from
other people distributing binaries without sources is the suggestion
of including a pointer to the cygwin/gnu web sites.  This is not sufficient
and is mentioned here:

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#SourceAndBinaryOnDifferentSites

I would appreciate your attention to this matter.

Thank you,
Christopher Faylor
Red Hat, Inc.

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/