On 9/23/07, Joe Fish [email protected] wrote:
distributes GPL software (because I don't buy the idea that selling
coupons redeemable at Novell constitutes 'distribution' any more than giving McDonald's gift certificates to my daughter would make me a restaurant).
It doesn't have to "make you a restaurant". Does it, OTOH, to use a closer analogy, make you "involved in conveying McDonald's gift certificates"?
But the gift certificates aren't food. And a Novell support voucher isn't GPLed software. The argument that MS giving such a voucher is 'distributing software' is just ridiculous, and I can't believe that otherwise reasonable people are pushing it.
GPLv3 has been re-written by smart guys SPECIFICALLY to try to make it so
what MS is doing IS considered "conveyance" of the covered software, and therefore covered by the license.
I don't see how it's possible. Furthermore, I think that the FSF might have gotten hustled. This only plays into the "GPL is viral; if you use any GPL software the FSF pwns j00!!!!11111" FUD. Only it isn't entirely FUD anymore with the FSF making such claims.