On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 10:39:41PM -0400, Igor Pechtchanski wrote: >On Fri, 22 Aug 2003, Elfyn McBratney wrote: >>Scott Copus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>Hi, >>> >>>Would it be possible to incorporate Cygwin into computer lab images for >>>computer labs at an educational institution for academic use by >>>students? >>> >>>Would the source have to be included too if it was included on each >>>hard drive of a lab workstation? (I'm talking about a pre-installed >>>package--not a "setup" that students must run first.) >> >>IANAL, but you'll need to give them source, too. If your distributing >>this (binary) "package" to your students, you need to give them the >>source code for the corresponding binaries (in one way or another). >> >>You should aquaint yourself with the GPL FAQ (available one GNU's >>website here <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html>). >> >>>The FAQ mentions the full package itself is approximately 800MB--NOT >>>INCLUDING the source code. If I were required to include the source >>>code (even if it's still tarred and g-zipped), then does anyone know >>>how much space would that require? >> >>Binary ~400MB, source ~500MB. Something like that anyway. -- Elfyn > >Scott, > >Note that the GPL only requires you to provide the source for the >binaries you distribute. So, if you set up a shared network drive with >the sources that were pre-installed on the hard-drives, that should be >quite enough to satisfy the GPL (however, IANAL, so please consult a >lawyer if you are worried about licensing). If the students update >their installations, they should be able to get the new sources from >wherever they got the binaries anyway.
I know that in a commercial organization it is ok to deploy GPLed programs all over the company without offering sources to each employee. I don't know if the equivalent is true for a university. So, the usual two pieces of advice: 1) Check the GPL FAQ at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html, and 2) Consult your lawyer to make sure that you are using the software appropriately. It doesn't make a lot of sense to put a university at risk on the advice of faceless voices in a mailing list. cgf -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
