RE: Source code for binaries offered at http://thinstall.com/ ?

["Jonathan Clark" <jclark at jitit dot com>]

Hello Christopher,

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I have added links to 
the web page showing where to download the binaries and source 
code, and I will add a message line to the .bashrc file so it
states likewise.  The archive in question uses unmodified cygwin 
EXEs and  DLLs, so I'm assuming that linking to your website will be 
sufficient? 

I do not mind hosting the source as well, but I'd prefer to send
users to the "real source" so they can investigate many of the other
programs provided by cygwin that are not in my package. 

The GPL licenses appears to allow this, stating: when 
redistributing binaries, it is permissible to :

> c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer 
>to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed 
> only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the 
>program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in 
>accord with Subsection b above.) 

You can examine the binaries inside of the archive to ensure they
have not been altered by running the following bash command:

cp -R * /someother_path

Good luck!  I enjoy cygwin very much, and I hope to have time to make
more distributions like this.  

Jonathan Clark
(Author of Abuse, Golgotha, and several other open source projects)

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Faylor [mailto:cgf@redhat.com]
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 5:46 AM
To: jclark@thinstall.com
Cc: cygwin@cygwin.com
Subject: Source code for binaries offered at http://thinstall.com/ ?


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.



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