[CentOS] using Red Hat site for documentation

[Valeri Galtsev]

This only can be said about the portion of their website that requires
username and password to access. Everything else (such as Documentation)
appears to be put out by them into public domain (that is you do not have
to agree to any terms when you enter the documentation portion of their
website), and therefore documentation can be used by anybody. This does
not include copying portion of that documentation and posting it elsewhere
(which separate - copyright - notice covers, I meant to say prohibits).

On a side note. RedHat as a commercial company that lives off open source
(mostly GNU licensed) software. And they to the best of my knowledge are
very good at following the terms of the license(s) themselves. That is:
they put out into public domain (make accessible) source RPMs and patches.
Exactly as GNU license requires them to. That, BTW, is why CentOS exists
quite legally. And even though I'm using CentOS on all workstations in the
Department and on several older servers (introduction and philosophy of
RHEL 7 made it clear that new servers will definitely be not CentOS 7, -
FreeBSD most likely), I feel no shame or feeling that I'm ripping off
RedHat. They do great job. They are paid by their customers for that. Our
University maintains contract with them. But in case of emergency, you
will faster go through to a solution if you are not going through some
pilot server, but can get necessary stuff directly (RHEL vs CentOS +
maintaining official CentOS public mirror in your server room).

Thanks.
Valeri

On Wed, July 30, 2014 8:38 am, Adrian Buciuman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is using Red Hat site for documentation legal?
>
> If I understand correctly you have to be a customer of Red Hat to be
> allowed to use their bandwidth:
> https://access.redhat.com/help/terms/
>
> "2. Terms Applicable to Red Hat Content. In order to access a Red Hat
> Portal and Red Hat Content, you must be a current Customer of Red Hat
> or its affiliates
> [.......]
>  "Some Red Hat Content may have additional terms, license agreements,
> privacy terms, export terms, subscription agreements, or other terms
> and conditions ("Additional Terms") that apply to your access to or
> use of the applicable Red Hat Content. In the event of a conflict,
> inconsistency, or difference between these Terms of Use and the
> Additional Terms, the Additional Terms will control.
> [........]
> 6. Use of Content. Red Hat grants you a personal, non-assignable
> license to use Red Hat Content for your own internal use while you are
> a Red Hat Customer (as defined in Section 2 above). Distributing any
> portion of Red Hat Content to a third party, using any Red Hat Content
> for the benefit of a third party, or using Red Hat Content in
> connection with software other than Red Hat Software under an active
> Red Hat subscription are all prohibited. Red Hat authorizes you to
> display on your computer, download, play, and print the Red Hat
> Content provided: (a) the copyright notice is not removed, (b) Red Hat
> Content is not be altered, (c) Red Hat Content is used only for your
> personal, educational, and non-commercial use in support of your
> active valid subscriptions to Red Hat products and services and in
> accordance with your Customer Agreement, (d) you do not further
> redistribute or copy Red Hat Content, and (e) you comply with any
> Additional Terms. In the event of a conflict, inconsistency, or
> difference between this Section 6 and the terms of a License or
> Customer Agreement, the License or Customer Agreement will control
> (for example, for Red Hat Content licensed under a Creative Commons
> License, you will have the rights set forth in the applicable Creative
> Commons License)."
>
> ---------------------------
>
> The way I understand it, most RHEL documentation has a more permissive
> license, like CC-BY-SA: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
> and can be redistributed under certain conditions.
> However, the terms of use still apply to using the Red Hat websites
> (=bandwidth).
>
> But if someone is a Red Hat customer, he can legally access the site,
> fetch the documentation and redistribute it to everyone.
>
> Since RHEL and CentOS are now collaborating, can they sort out this issue?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Adrian Buciuman
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
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