Re: "GPL requirement could have a chilling effect on derivative distros"

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

       1. Party A makes a GPL'ed program available, on two CDs.  One
       has the program in binary form, and one has the source.

       2. Party B obtains these CDs, and having no interest in the
       source code, gives the source CD away, or perhaps discards it.

       3. Later, Party B no longer has a use for the program, so
       deletes all copies they have made of the binary CD, and then
       puts the binary CD up for sale.

       4. Party C buys the binary CD.

   Question: who, if any, is obligated to provide source to Party C
   (if Party C wants it)?

Party B.

   If B were selling a *modified* copy, or if B were making new copies
   and selling them, it would be different, but that's not the case
   here.

Party B is distributing a verbatim copy, that it is or isn't a a new
copy isn't relevant.

| 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
|    under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the
|    terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of
|    the following:

|      a. Accompany it with the complete corresponding
|         machine-readable source code, which must be distributed
|         under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
|         customarily used for software interchange; or,

|      b. Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
|         years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than
|         your cost of physically performing source distribution, a
|         complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source
|         code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2
|         above on a medium customarily used for software interchange;
|         or,

|      c. Accompany it with the information you received as to the
|         offer to distribute corresponding source code.  (This
|         alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution
|         and only if you received the program in object code or
|         executable form with such an offer, in accord with
|         Subsection b above.)

|    The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work
|    for making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete
|    source code means all the source code for all modules it
|    contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus
|    the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the
|    executable.  However, as a special exception, the source code
|    distributed need not include anything that is normally
|    distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major
|    components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system
|    on which the executable runs, unless that component itself
|    accompanies the executable.

|    If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
|    access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
|    access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
|    distribution of the source code, even though third parties are
|    not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.