Thread overview
Binary and source code
Jun 08, 2005
Luigi Rosa
Jun 08, 2005
Brad Beveridge
Jun 08, 2005
Gerrit P. Haase
Jun 09, 2005
clayasaurus
June 08, 2005
I would like to modify the code and sell it. This is possible because it is
under GPL GNU. But the modality of this selling are the followings
ones:

- a free binary code is available from an anonymous ftp
- source code is available on request after the payment of a small sum of money.
The complete source code will be sent by email

Is this possible for me or it is not legal because it does not respect GPL GNU license?

Please give me all useful informations you know about this license, I tried to read it from GNU website but with poor results.

Luigi
June 08, 2005
Luigi Rosa wrote:

> I would like to modify the code and sell it. This is possible because it is
> under GPL GNU. But the modality of this selling are the followings
> ones:
> 
> - a free binary code is available from an anonymous ftp
> - source code is available on request after the payment of a small sum of money.
> The complete source code will be sent by email
> 
> Is this possible for me or it is not legal because it does not respect GPL GNU
> license?
> 
> Please give me all useful informations you know about this license, I tried to
> read it from GNU website but with poor results.

No, you can not charge extra for the source code.
However, you can charge for the entire product...
(Red Hat being one example of selling GPL software)

But if you use GPL code, you *must* provide source.

See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html:
"Without a limit on the fee for the source code, they would be able set a fee too large for anyone to pay--such as a billion dollars--and thus pretend to release source code while in truth concealing it."

It's a tricky trade-off, which is why some prefer BSD.
--anders
June 08, 2005
Luigi Rosa wrote:
> I would like to modify the code and sell it. This is possible because it is
> under GPL GNU. But the modality of this selling are the followings
> ones:
> 
> - a free binary code is available from an anonymous ftp
> - source code is available on request after the payment of a small sum of money.
> The complete source code will be sent by email
> 
> Is this possible for me or it is not legal because it does not respect GPL GNU
> license?
> 
> Please give me all useful informations you know about this license, I tried to
> read it from GNU website but with poor results.
> 
> Luigi
As I understand it:
You can sell the binary for any price you like.  Anyone who purchases the binary may request the source code.  You do not need to provide the source code to people who have not purchased the binary.  Upon request you must provide the GPL source code.  You may charge a small distribution fee for the source code - for example to cover costs of burning & posting a CD.  There is a good faith expectation that the source code you provide should easily produce the binary that the client purchased.
People who obtain the source code from you may distribute that code under the GPL - so if you do make changes don't be surprised to see them quickly folded into other GPL versions of the D compiler.

Cheers
Brad
June 08, 2005
Luigi Rosa wrote:

> I would like to modify the code and sell it. This is possible because it is
> under GPL GNU. But the modality of this selling are the followings
> ones:
> 
> - a free binary code is available from an anonymous ftp
> - source code is available on request after the payment of a small sum of money.
> The complete source code will be sent by email
> 
> Is this possible for me or it is not legal because it does not respect GPL GNU
> license?
> 
> Please give me all useful informations you know about this license, I tried to
> read it from GNU website but with poor results.


Ask your lawyer.

Gerrit
June 09, 2005
Luigi Rosa wrote:
> I would like to modify the code and sell it. This is possible because it is
> under GPL GNU. But the modality of this selling are the followings
> ones:
> 
> - a free binary code is available from an anonymous ftp
> - source code is available on request after the payment of a small sum of money.
> The complete source code will be sent by email
> 
> Is this possible for me or it is not legal because it does not respect GPL GNU
> license?
> 
> Please give me all useful informations you know about this license, I tried to
> read it from GNU website but with poor results.
> 
> Luigi

You can modify it and sell it as long as you provide full access to your source code modifications.