RE: [cobalt-users] Cobalt Racks Question

["Rodolfo J. Paiz" <rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 4/10/01 04:19 PM +0200, you wrote:
> I don't see it, sorry.  Cobalt's GUI is distributed "as part of a whole
> which is a work based on the Program" which are the exact words of the GPL.
> I couldn't describe the situation better if I tried.

Let me play devil's advocate here. I'll argue that Cobalt sells you three 
products:

* Hardware
* Operating System
* GUI

The hardware is exempt from licensing debate at the moment. The OS is most 
definitely under GPL, and Cobalt should abide by those terms fully. But...

The GUI could have been developed totally independently of the OS 
(code-wise), and not based on it in any way. The fact that the GUI modifies 
OS files is irrelevant; that does not make it "based on" the OS. (Also note 
that here the fact that the GUI manufactures its config files and uses them 
to overwrite the actuals is legally in favor of Cobalt; they are not 
reading input from the OS, just writing to it.)

So they have a product which is developed independently and not based on 
the OS. This product, in order to do its thing, writes files to the hard 
drive *without* reading input from the OS. Development of the GUI is 
independent of development of the OS.

I can see this as a valid case for the OS being separate from--and subject 
to disparate licensing from--the underlying operating system. Like oil and 
water, they don't mix.


--
Rodolfo J. Paiz
rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx