From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,TO_NO_BRKTS_FROM_MSSP autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,13b7917466f2d19 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-10-09 08:18:25 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!out.nntp.be!propagator-SanJose!news-in-sanjose!in.nntp.be!newsranger.com!www.newsranger.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Ted Dennison References: <9a575af3.0110020747.2304ce86@posting.google.com> <5ee5b646.0110022002.7ccde025@posting.google.com> <5ee5b646.0110060639.31567261@posting.google.com> <3BC16DA1.8D219F94@brighton.ac.uk> <3BC196CF.ACEA8F64@brighton.ac.uk> Subject: Re: GNAT and GCC 3.0 Message-ID: X-Abuse-Info: When contacting newsranger.com regarding abuse please X-Abuse-Info: forward the entire news article including headers or X-Abuse-Info: else we will not be able to process your request X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsranger.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 11:17:56 EDT Organization: http://www.newsranger.com Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 15:17:56 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:14031 Date: 2001-10-09T15:17:56+00:00 List-Id: In article <3BC196CF.ACEA8F64@brighton.ac.uk>, John English says... > >Does this apply to binaries? Certainly Perl, Python and Tcl are "open source" >in some form (Perl is Perl Artistic License, Tcl is (c) Regents of University > >Not being a lawyer, I don't know if the GPL would prevent such conditions >being imposed on a precompiled binary made from GPL source, or whether >the vendor is merely obliged to point you at the sources and say "here >you are, you can compile it yourself if you want to, but you can't give >away copies of *our* compiled binaries". The GPL does indeed prevent such restrictions. You don't really have to be a laywer to get a pretty good understanding of it. A programmer that can look at source code and understand what it is doing should be capable of looking at a page of rules written in their own language and understand what they mean. The GPL is quite short, and is available here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html Probably the most relevant passage is: --- 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: * a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or, * 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, * 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.) ---- The only real danger here is that the copyright holder could always decide to provide a release under a different license. However, the FSF is the copyright holder for Gnat, and I doubt they will ever do that. :-) --- T.E.D. homepage - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.