[wellylug] Linux as selling point.

[David Murray]

On Tue, 2005-08-09 at 00:07, Bret Comstock Waldow wrote:
> If I let others use it, I can specify terms - that's a license.  GPL code is 
> owned.  In some cases the original author has transferred the copy-right to 
> someone else - maybe an organization.   But the code is still owned.  That's 
> why it's not the same as Public Domain.

Yes - and are not those terms that you can use the source code in any
way you like - freely. But *if* you modify that source code then you
have to publish the source code to those changes.

But if you do NOT modify the source code, then you are FREE to do what
you like with it - and if that means embedding binaries made from that
source code within a gadget then so beit - especially if those binaries
are un-extractable without breaking said gadget, and provided that the
source code is un-modified from the original.

I've not seen anything so far in this discussion that says a hardware
manufacturer cannot do that.

I could be wrong, however, and if there is a clause in the GPL which
prohibits the usage of binaries produced from unmodified source code by
hardware manufacturers, then please feel free to quote it.


Regards,

David Murray