But what about the cloud and auto scaling wouldn't that count as distribution (through for internal use only)?

The GPL is all about giving rights to individual users of your program, not the world in general. It does so by turning copyright upside down, instead of restricting rights it grants rights (it’s like the opposite of those FBI warnings you get on DVD-discs) to those, and only those, who you give a copy of the program to.

But that is all. It works exactly like copyright in that regard. To be subject to it you need to have received a copy of program.

So no, running the program in the cloud is not distribution.

It's an interesting point. I wonder if sending a binary to AWS counts as distribution to a third party?

(Of course I work for Red Hat and the cult thinks all code should be free :-)

Yes all code should be free!

(I work for Red Hat also :-)

I was originally just being silly but figured I would add something of substance here. I think the GPL goes a little too far but I like the spirit of it. As a user if I pay for an application, I should get a copy of the code for personal use as well. I don't think that gives me the right to distribute it because it's still somebody's property, but applications should be distributed to customers with their source IMHO.

Internal use is not distributing.