[CentOS] [OT] RedHat's licence, CentOS rebuild

Alain Reguera alain.reguera at gmail.com
Fri Aug 18 22:41:04 UTC 2006


Thanks for the replays guys, ... some details to share:

On 8/18/06, Johnny Hughes <mailing-lists at hughesjr.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-08-18 at 15:38 -0400, Alain Reguera wrote:

...

> > In a past post, I read that even if redhat close the distro, it has to
> > release the sources to the client how buy the distro, so he/she would
> > rebuild it and release a new one based on it as totally free. So, will
> > CentOS have to buy the redhat distro to rebuild it and release it for
> > free to the community in a close case ?
>
> I do not think that RH is going to close their sources.  If they were to
> do so, they would still have to give them to customers.  CentOS
> developers do have paid access to the source code.

if I understand, the CentOS project is not just supported technically
by the CentOS Developers Team but financially too ?, in case of close.

> > Have we some guarantee that redhat will not close the srpms and the
> > rebuilding will be safe ?.
>
> There are never any guarantees in life ... ask the former Enron
> employees.

you're right :(

> So long as RedHat uses GPL products they will be required to give the
> SRPMS to customers and they can not restrict what the customers do with
> GPL source code ... except as it relates to their trademarks.
>
> >
> > What does CentOS mean with: CentOS has no relationship with Red
> > Hat(r), Inc. or RHEL.
>
> It means that the CentOS project is not in any way affiliated with
> RedHat.  RedHat does not give us advise, they don't tell us anything
> that they don't tell the general public, they don't give us money, they
> don't give us equipment, they don't help us build or distribute
> CentOS.
>
> They provide SRPMS via the GPL to the public ... we take those publicly
> available sources, follow their rules concerning trademarks, and make
> CentOS.
>
> Fedora Core is affiliated with Red Hat (as an example).  Red Hat
> provides Fedora with servers, allows Fedora to host things at
> redhat.com, etc.
>
> I think our FAQ on this issue is quite clear:
>
> http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=13

Could be the issue of the CentOS Developers be redhat's customers a
relationship with redhat ? ( supposing that if they pay for something
they becomes customers of that).

> > What happen with those countries that are not allowed to use redhat,
> > can they use CentOS ? does redhat want this ? is this permitted by
> > some legal argument.
> >
>
> CentOS does not distribute our product in any places where the United
> States export laws prohibit distribution.

what means distribute? if those countries download the isos and
install them in order to use it, are they doing that illegally ?

my Regards to you and your Time
Al.



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