GPL question, can open source code can be used to prop. platform?

Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
platform and can be sold in for commercial use?. Is this GPL coers
this?. Or Is there any royalty or licensing fee has to pay per unit?.
What if some modifications does for some of the code?. Thanks.

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Santa wrote:

> Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
> platform

Yes.

> and can be sold in for commercial use?.

Yes, but you have to GPL licence any modifications you make to GPL code,
and provide a means by which your customers (and any third party) may
obtain the source code of those changes. You may only charge a
reasonable copying fee for any source code distributed (in other words,
no $1M source code fees).

> Is this GPL coers
> this?.

Yes. You can read the GPL (it's not in legalese) and see for yourself
Take a look at http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html

>Or Is there any royalty or licensing fee has to pay per unit?.

No. No royalty or licencing fees are permitted on GPL'ed code. Also,
/you/ cannot charge royalties or licencing fees on your changes to
GPL'ed code, nor can you prevent redistribution of the GPL'ed code.

> What if some modifications does for some of the code?. Thanks.

Your modifications are yours, copyright and all.

If you modify a GPL'ed program, then you must licence your modifications
with the same licence.

If you modify a program under another OSS licence, then you must follow
that licences requirements for your changes.

Finally, if you modify a program that has a propriatary licence, you
/must/ negotiate with the author of the original program for the right
to do so, and the right to distribute your changes.


Remember, you are /not/ crafting a new product for which you have full
IP control. You are /borrowing/ someone elses work, and adding to it.
The conditions under which the other person /permits/ you to change
/his/ product is the licence you have to follow. If the other person
permits you to change /his/ code, with the requirement that you
distribute according to the GPL, then that's what you have to do to
satisfy /that/ licence. The resulting product is not exclusively yours.

- --

Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Enterprise Application Architecture
Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)
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In comp.os.linux.networking Santa <santa19992000@yahoo.com> suggested:
> Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
> platform and can be sold in for commercial use?. Is this GPL coers
> this?. Or Is there any royalty or licensing fee has to pay per unit?.
> What if some modifications does for some of the code?. Thanks.

In-house you can do what you like with the code. If you want to
sell it, even if it's in some kind of "black-box", you have to make
the source available on request. Or you just broke the GPL.

There's no fee needed, you are free to charge whatever ridiculous
price your customer pay, the GPL is not about money, but about
open code.

AFAIR there have recently been some cases, where a "black-box" was
sold as firewall, which in reality contained Linux/iptables/etc,
those manufacturer somehow forgot about the GPL and didn't made the
source available upon request. They settled with the FSF Europe,
payed rather large contributions and promised to stop breaking
the GPL, there was at least one "global player" manufacturer among
them, so better don't even think about breaking the GPL.;)

You should find complete/correct info, since I'm no lawyer and
the above was written from memory, right over here:

http://www.gnu.org/

--
Michael Heiming (GPG-Key ID: 0xEDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
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In comp.os.linux.networking Michael Heiming <michael+USENET@www.heiming.de> suggested:
> In comp.os.linux.networking Santa <santa19992000@yahoo.com> suggested:
>> Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
>> platform and can be sold in for commercial use?. Is this GPL coers
[..]

> You should find complete/correct info, since I'm no lawyer and
> the above was written from memory, right over here:

> http://www.gnu.org/


And http://www.fsf.org/ of course.

BTW
Your question isn't really on topic in coln cols.

--
Michael Heiming (GPG-Key ID: 0xEDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
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On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 15:06:45 -0400,
Lew Pitcher <Lew.Pitcher@td.com> wrote:
>
> Santa wrote:
>
>> Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
>> platform
>
> Yes.
>
>> and can be sold in for commercial use?.
>
> Yes, but you have to GPL licence any modifications you make to GPL code,
> and provide a means by which your customers (and any third party) may
> obtain the source code of those changes. You may only charge a
> reasonable copying fee for any source code distributed (in other words,
> no $1M source code fees).
>

Minor correction.

There is no requirement for you to make the source code available to
anyone but your customers. (or rather, the folks who you make the
binaries available to) You just can't prohibit them from redistributing
it :)

<snip>


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--
Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
Never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die.
-- Fremen Saying

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Jim Richardson wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 15:06:45 -0400,
> Lew Pitcher <Lew.Pitcher@td.com> wrote:
>
>>>Santa wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
>>>>platform
>>>
>>>Yes.
>>>
>>>
>>>>and can be sold in for commercial use?.
>>>
>>>Yes, but you have to GPL licence any modifications you make to GPL code,
>>>and provide a means by which your customers (and any third party) may
>>>obtain the source code of those changes. You may only charge a
>>>reasonable copying fee for any source code distributed (in other words,
>>>no $1M source code fees).
>>>
>
>
> Minor correction.
>
> There is no requirement for you to make the source code available to
> anyone but your customers. (or rather, the folks who you make the
> binaries available to) You just can't prohibit them from redistributing
> it :)
>
> <snip>
>
>

GPL v2 Clause 3 states (in part):

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:

...

* 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,

- From the phrase "any third party" in clause 3b, it seems to me that the GPL
does indeed require that you make the source code available to someone other
than your direct customers. This seems explicitly to cover the condition where
your customer redistributes your GPLed code.


- --
Lew Pitcher

Master Codewright & JOAT-in-training | GPG public key available on request
Registered Linux User #112576 (http://counter.li.org/)
Slackware - Because I know what I'm doing.
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> Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
> platform and can be sold in for commercial use?. Is this GPL coers
> this?. Or Is there any royalty or licensing fee has to pay per unit?.
> What if some modifications does for some of the code?. Thanks.

You can sell the software/firmware to your customers for $1 million
dollars, but once it's provided in binary or compiled form to the customers
you must also provide them with source code should they ask for it. You can
not provide the binary without offering the source.

And once they have the source code, there is nothing that prevents them
from modifying it or redistributing it.

--
Jem Berkes
http://www.sysdesign.ca/

In comp.os.linux.security Jim Richardson <warlock@eskimo.com> wrote:
> Minor correction.
>
> There is no requirement for you to make the source code available to
> anyone but your customers. (or rather, the folks who you make the
> binaries available to) You just can't prohibit them from redistributing
> it :)

however, if the application can be downloaded by anyone, they are also
supposed to release the code, right ?

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On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 00:25:52 -0400,
Lew Pitcher <lpitcher@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> Jim Richardson wrote:
>> On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 15:06:45 -0400,
>> Lew Pitcher <Lew.Pitcher@td.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>Santa wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
>>>>>platform
>>>>
>>>>Yes.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>and can be sold in for commercial use?.
>>>>
>>>>Yes, but you have to GPL licence any modifications you make to GPL code,
>>>>and provide a means by which your customers (and any third party) may
>>>>obtain the source code of those changes. You may only charge a
>>>>reasonable copying fee for any source code distributed (in other words,
>>>>no $1M source code fees).
>>>>
>>
>>
>> Minor correction.
>>
>> There is no requirement for you to make the source code available to
>> anyone but your customers. (or rather, the folks who you make the
>> binaries available to) You just can't prohibit them from redistributing
>> it :)
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>
>
> GPL v2 Clause 3 states (in part):
>
> 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:
>
> ...
>
> * 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,
>
> - From the phrase "any third party" in clause 3b, it seems to me that the GPL
> does indeed require that you make the source code available to someone other
> than your direct customers. This seems explicitly to cover the condition where
> your customer redistributes your GPLed code.
>
>


I stand corrected, thanks. Is this something that changed with v2.0? or
have I been out of touch since the beginning? :)

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--
Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
"The Secret of Zen lies in just two words: Not Always So.."
- Shunryu Suzuki

santa19992000@yahoo.com (Santa) writes:

]Can opensource code (RH/Debian/SUSE) modified for inhouse firewall
]platform and can be sold in for commercial use?. Is this GPL coers
]this?. Or Is there any royalty or licensing fee has to pay per unit?.
]What if some modifications does for some of the code?. Thanks.

Sure it can be used for whatever you want. However if you release it it
must be released as GPL-- ie you must allow anyone who uses your code to
make and distribute copies, and must provide the
source code as well. Modifications still bring it under the gpl.
If the copyright holder agrees, you can also eneter into a separate
agreement with them to include your code into a closed source, proprietary
product.