From: Paul AT chocolat DOT foobar DOT co DOT uk (Paul Shirley) Subject: Re: Cygnus Cygwin32 Press Release 1/21/97 13 Feb 1997 00:16:51 -0800 Approved: cygnus DOT gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com Distribution: cygnus Message-ID: <6mb1SBAP9gAzEwR+.cygnus.gnu-win32@foobar.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Original-To: Stan Shebs Original-Cc: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Turnpike Version 3.02 Original-Sender: owner-gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com In message , Stan Shebs writes >Jeremy had it pretty accurate, but "commercial" is not entirely >relevant. Technically, if you use the GPLed library in a freeware >app, then you would have to make the app's sources available upon >request to anyone you gave the binary to (note: not to just anyone, >just those that *you* gave it to). That may have been the intent of the GPL but it is *not* what the GPL actually says. > 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, >under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of >Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following: > > a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable > source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections > 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software >interchange; or, > > b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three > years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your > cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete > machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be > distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium > customarily used for software interchange; or, 3c omitted (it deals with noncommercial distribution) The key phrase is 'any third party'. This could be interpreted as meaning you must give anyone who asks a copy. It is irrelevant that this could be a wrong interpretation, companies must take the most pessimistic interpretation of the licence. -- Paul Shirley - For help on using this list, send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".