On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:08:49 -0300, Felipe Sanches wrote:
it's not a matter of being ethical or not. It is a legal issue.
Well, I think it's a question of both; if he provides the source on the disc along with the GPL license, he's still offering it on eBay without stating that it's open source anyone can get for no charge. IANAL either, but it seems that it would be legal to do so, but certainly not ethical.
GPLed software can be offered commercially even if the price is above the cost of reproduction. He could be selling it for hundreds of dollars and still not violate the GPL.
Absolutely. Look at SUSE, RedHat, etc. who sell Linux distributions.
But he must include a copy of the license and he MUST provide the source code to his customers (not necessarily inside the sold CDs, but at least a way to get the sourcecode such as a link to a tarball, for example). I am not sure, but it seems to me that stating that the sourcecode is available at inkscape.org is not enough. He must himself offer the sources to every one that get the binaries.
I think GPLv2 licenses do require the source be included or offered from the person selling, but ISTR that GPLv3 allows electronic distribution even when there's a physical medium used. I could be entirely wrong, but that's what I recall.
But I am not a lawyer, these things I am saying must be checked with a professional. Maybe we could ask for help on http://gpl-violations.org/
Absolutely, after all, if GPL authors don't enforce their licenses, that's how the GPL gets trodden on.
There is perhaps an easier route, though - just ask the seller to see a copy of the license.
Jim