Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com X-Authentication-Warning: slinky.cs.nyu.edu: pechtcha owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 11:26:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Igor Pechtchanski Reply-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com To: Jean Delvare cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Subject: Re: redistributing cygwin1.dll In-Reply-To: <20030512171354.1f851221.khali@linux-fr.org> Message-ID: Importance: Normal MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 12 May 2003, Jean Delvare wrote: > > >it looks like you're the person to contact to solve my problem. If > > >not, please redirect me to the right person. > > > > The "right person" is the cygwin mailing list. You somehow found the > > archives without finding the numerous exhortations against private > > email. > > > > I've cc'ed this message there. > > Oops, sorry. I should have paid more attention, since I am myself on > many mailing-lists and I hate being contacted in private as much as you > seem to be. Sorry again. > > > > From what I read on the mailing list, I am infringing the GPL > > > doing so. > > > > Yes, you are not compliant with the GPL. > > (...) > > I haven't had the time to implement anything special. Your simplest > > solution is just to make sure that the sources for your applications > > are downloadable and that the source code (e.g., > > cygwin-1.3.22-src.tar.bz2) for the cygwin DLL you are providing is > > also available. It really isn't that hard. > > Not that I find it hard, but it's probably much trouble for nothing. And > I don't speak for me only. I'm not the only one facing the problem, > since I could first find a previous post on the mailing list with the > same kind of request, and a quick search with Google gave me some more > pages proposing cygwin1.dll for download without the sources. On some > other pages, the file simply isn't available for download anymore, due > to the licensing issue (which means that the author chose to remove the > binary rather than to make the sources available for download). > > I really think you should do something about this. Forcing people to > make the source available has the following drawbacks IMHO: > * Some people will choose to remove the binary, possibly due to > technical limitations. This makes their work unusable for most users. > * Others will choose to make the sources available (few of them, I > suppose). It's probably a waste of space, since few users, if any, will > ever download it, and the ones wanting to do so will probably get the > file from cygwin's setup. > * Most people, I believe, will keep the binary without offering the > sources. They'll infringe the GPL and I can't blame them for that. They > don't intend to do anything bad, most of them are sharing their own > code. Such cases of unpunished GPL infringement could be exploited by > evil lawyers. > * In the two later cases, the binary and possibly source form of the > library will be quickly outdated, since Cygwin is evolving rather fast. > I don't plan to update my page that often, and I believe most authors > won't either. > > So, I really believe you should set a place up where people can get the > latest version of cygwin1.dll, in binary and source forms. A simple or > http directory would do it, if you don't want to make it very public and > advertise for it. Authors like me would then just have to link to the > directory, sparing disk space and protecting the GPL. > > Comments welcome. Jean, This has been rehashed on the list many times. There is such a place -- in fact, many places, collectively called "the Cygwin mirrors". Simply instruct your users to download "setup.exe" from Cygwin's main site (i.e., ), and use it to install the "cygwin" package. This will get them a minimum setup required to run your code. That way all you have to worry about is your program running on all versions of cygwin1.dll, and you're all set. Igor -- http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/ |\ _,,,---,,_ pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ igor AT watson DOT ibm DOT com |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Igor Pechtchanski '---''(_/--' `-'\_) fL a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-. Meow! Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. -- Leto II -- 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/