[Ilugc] RHEL Copyright issues...
- From: ramanraj@xxxxxxxxx (Ramanraj K)
- Date: Fri Jan 7 08:56:37 2005
Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
Easwaran K.V wrote:
Is buying Linux like RHEL 3,SUSE 9.2 pro, Mandrake
Powerpack from people who sell them cheaply(say 40 per cd) legal ??
I know normal versions are free but, these
professional and enterprise versions are not to be
sold like this . am i correct ??
Correct - quite often the distros are either free for download but not
for redistribution, or much more expensive (like RHEL) - and with
redistribution similarly prohibited.
What RedHat, SuSE and Mandrake essentially sell is support. Please check
this out from their respective sites. For example at the RedHat
Enterprise Linux Support Options and Pricing page at
http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/purchase/index.html and ;
http://www.redhat.com/support/service/sla/rhel3.html , the prices vary ;
depending upon the extent and mode of support.Generally, those who
prohibit redistribution of GPLed or other like free software may be
prosecuted for copyright violations, and therefore, they would not and
don't prohibit redistribution.
All these companies work hard to put together distros, write patches,
and even make very substantial contributions. The LinuxForYou issue
dated Nov, 2004, carried an interview with founder of RedHat, Michael
Tiemann, how he single handedly did the GNU C++ compiler, in just six
months, working hard for 18 hours a day, 7 days a week and finally
announced it to the mailing list. Purchasing support services directly
from the company could help to pay developers and also increase the
reach of free software. The boxes usually ship with good quality manuals.
So Ritchie Street software pirates are now diversifying into pirating
linux distros as well?
So the Tsunami brought in pirates from the high seas ? No offence ;)
-Ramanraj.
References:
http://www.redhat.com/legal/legal_statement.html
http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us_3.html?country=United+States&;
http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_rha_eula.html
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