[CentOS] RHEL on The Pirate Bay, Mininova, etc

Sun Mar 23 11:58:57 UTC 2008
Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org>

Daniel de Kok wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 9:17 AM, Stephen John Smoogen <smooge at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  RMS and the FSF has said this is not a restriction on the software..
>>  it is a restriction upon you for getting a compilation and update
>>  service from Red Hat.
> 
> But once you have retrieved the compiled package through a
> subscription, it is governed under the GPL, right? And the GPL does
> not allow for such restrictions.
> 

Not at all ...

You have signed an agreement as to how you will use the software ON YOUR 
machines as long as you obtain software from RHN without paying Red Hat 
for each installation.  There is NO RESTRICTION that you may not charge 
for each copy of GPL software .. it is specifically allowed.  And in 
this case, you have signed an agreement on exactly HOW you compensate 
them for the use of their software.

The issue is NOT how you use the software at all ... the issue is HOW 
MUCH YOU WILL PAY RED HAT WHILE YOU DO USE THE SOFTWARE.

You are free to use the software on as many machines as you want, just 
like debain or CentOS or OpenSUSE.

The only thing is, if you use software provided by Red Hat (via RHN), 
you have signed an agreement that you will pay them a subscription fee 
on that computer.

So, yes, you can use the software ... you just must pay them.

NOW, if you modify the software and meet their terms for Redistribution 
(with regards to the packages that they require changing) ... and if you 
  did not get the software from RHN, but instead from their public FTP 
server (the sources) and rebuilt the packages, then you would not need 
to pay them.

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