LWN debates whether using GPL software on missiles counts as distribution

Re:LWN debates whether using GPL software on missiles counts... by ben1040 on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @10:15AM (#4100502)

Including a copy of the source with a missile reminds me of the "McDonnell-Douglas Warranty Card" joke that is probably nearly as old as the Internet itself:

http://www.cartalk.com/content/mcdonnell-douglas-warranty-ca...

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Re:LWN debates whether using GPL software on missiles counts... by dchest on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @10:34AM (#4100605)

Which reminded me of the picture of an American cluster bomb dispenser I took in Belgrade military museum: "Mishandling may void terms of the warranty" -- https://twitter.com/dchest/status/204289416779403264/photo/1....

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Re:LWN debates whether using GPL software on missiles counts... by planetguy on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @11:20AM (#4100876)

Can't be that old, has to post-date the declassification of the F-117A in 1988. On the other hand, has to predate the subsuming of McDonell-Douglas into Boeing in 1997.

I was going to try to get more specific by figuring out when exactly Grumman (maker of the F-14) and General Dynamics (maker of the F-16) got subsumed into McDonnell-Douglas, but it turns out that they never did, they wound up in Lockheed. So whoever wrote this clearly didn't know all that much about fighter aircraft.

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Re:LWN debates whether using GPL software on missiles counts... by excuse-me on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @11:47AM (#4101010)

The joke has been re-written and re-told with new aircraft names many-many times - it dates back to at least Korea.

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