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From: Adam Dinwoodie <adam@dinwoodie.org>
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2020 18:44:27 +0000
Message-ID: <CA+kUOa=7AW3tD5EBtAjBYP8Rn7iEjdeqLC=jWhAowx57R=PPWA@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Commercial use of cygwin
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On Sat, 12 Dec 2020 at 17:27, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty wrote:
> Do the points made here also apply to commercial but open-source use of
> Cygwin?
>
> For extra context, I have an application with bundles parts of Cygwin
> and libraries built against Cygwin. None of the source or binaries is
> modified.
>
> I know I at least have to state which packages are included in the
> bundle and provide links to the source for those, but I am not sure if
> it is required that I eg provide a downloadable compressed folder with
> complete source for everything.
>
> Can anyone give me some advice? The work everyone does for Cygwin is
> valuable and I certainly don't intend to claim any of it is mine.

The discussion in this thread so far, as best I can tell, amounts to
"you need to comply with the license agreements in the packages you
distribute". That is definitely the case for commercial open-source
projects as much as it is for anything else.

In my opinion, the safest way to make sure you're compliant is to
provide all the source code for all the binaries you're distributing
in the same way you make those binaries available; if you're shipping
software on CD, ship the source code on the same CD; if you're
shipping software by providing a download link, provide a download
link nearby to the source code. In particular, it's not sufficient to
merely point to the Cygwin website or even Cygwin mirrors, as those
could disappear while you're still legally obliged to provide source
code for at least anything with a GPL/LGPL/&c license.

That all being said, I am not a lawyer, and I have no particular
authority in the Cygwin project to assert what is and isn't
permissible. Particularly for any commercial use, I would want
professional legal advice on anything I wasn't confident about.

HTH

Adam
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