[cobalt-users] Cobalt and the GPL.

["Dom Latter" <d.latter@xxxxxxx>]

I had a rant going when my lovely NT box BSOD'd on me.
Try again.  Somebody had posted the details of the Cobalt 
license.  In short:

1. I am not a lawyer
2. Looks to me like Cobalt's claim that their software is 
a "valuable trade secret" is bogus
3. IMHO they cannot stop people redistributing the restore CD
4. I am not a lawyer

Even if Cobalt's special sauce "can be reasonably considered 
independent and separate works in themselves" they are still 
"caught" by the last sentence in the quoted section. 

Or perhaps somebody at Cobalt can explain how their Linux 
distro is legally different from everybody else's?

><><><><><><><><><><> GPL quote <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
  2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

    a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
    stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

    b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
    whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
    part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
    parties under the terms of this License.

    c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
       <snip>

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.