Re:Rocky Linux, Reflections on Three Years of Growth
by kijin on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @08:40AM
(#39288411)
AFAIK mere exchange of code between employer and employee is not considered "distribution" for the purpose of the GPL. They are part of the same company, working on the same project. Similar relationships exist between client and contractor, client and lawyer, etc.
Re:Rocky Linux, Reflections on Three Years of Growth
by zokier on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @12:38PM
(#39291518)
It is about as clear as mud.
> The function of the contractor in such cases is nearly identical to that of an employee; however, because the contractor is not an employee, providing a copy of software to the contractor could be considered distribution. This is one of the thornier areas of GPLv2 interpretation, and it is discussed in more detail below
> A full discussion of the tenets of international copyright law bearing upon this issue is beyond the scope of this article, but it seems likely the question would have different answers outside the U.S [...] Therefore, the triggers for copyleft obligations, based on activity outside the U.S., may have a lower threshold than in the U.S.
> You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein
So I think it could be debatable if RHELs policy represents a restriction. Overall I feel this part of GPL has not been explored all that thoroughly and I feel it raises questions beyond this RHEL case. For example FSFs GPL FAQ states:
> For instance, you can accept a contract to develop changes and agree not to release your changes until the client says ok. This is permitted because in this case no GPL-covered code is being distributed under an NDA
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#DevelopChangesU...
I don't understand how that is not conflicting here; wouldn't your client be distributing the code to be modified to you, and that should be covered by GPL? And as such the NDA would represent additional restriction?
I suppose there could be a special case where the client would ask modifications for a publicly available sources and as such would not be distributing the code themselves, but I feel that can not be considered typical or general case.
Similar interesting case would be employees receiving copies of company internal forks of GPL code. Should employees have right to redistribute the code in accordance to GPL terms without threat of getting punished?