[Gnu-arch-users] Re: licensing question

[Thomas Lord]

Mark:

> Gee, Tom, a long-winded and somewhat roundabout way to claim that  
> anyone buying into the RedHat distribution model is amazingly stupid.

> Big whoop.

Nope.  It's a way to pose the question of whether or not the RedHat 
distribution model actually *violates the GPL*.

I think it clearly does violate the GPL.  The clauses in this
contract:

   http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us_3.html

regarding increasing the number of "Installed Systems" constitute
a restriction on the use of free software, do they not?

I see no way to construct a contract that counts the number of
CPUs on which a customer installs a distribution of GPLed software
that does not violate the GPL.

I believe that RH would have 0 difficulty correcting these clauses
at essentially 0 cost to their business.   I'm concerned about the
precedent established by these clauses because of how others can later
abuse these practices.

The FSF is not yet moved on this issue which I find, frankly, rather
flabbergasting -- hence my thought experiment for the community.

Are we really so collectively unconcerned with the GPL that software
freedoms are doomed to become "on paper only?"   Have I invested 20
years of participation in the free software movement to have it 
come to little more than a "free labor movement"?

-t