Re: [cobalt-users] procmail and other GPL source...

[Lyle Scheer <lyle.scheer@xxxxxxx>]

Charlie Summers wrote:

> Folks;
>
>    I was talking to the current maintainer of procmail about the
> little...crisis I had over the weekend (thanks to Thom, by the way, for
> helping me get out of it) trying to upgrade procmail. He made a rather
> interesting point - since procmail is licensed under the GPL (ok, it's
> actually dual-licensed, but it would be apparently easier to follow the GPL
> than the Artistic License), Cobalt/Sun is likely legally required to supply
> the source used to generate the procmail binary on-demand, as well as ALL of
> the source used to generate ALL of the other GPL-licensed binaries it is
> using. Any alterations to the source code to these binaries (for example, the
> C code required to allow procmail to follow sym links from /var/spool/mail to
> /home/spool/mail) would automatically be covered by the same GPL license, and
> NOT otherwise protected. (Basically, Sun owns the changes, but must make the
> source code available for others to modify as well.)
>
>    So maybe the next time you try to update a binary and the thing blows up
> for no d*mned good reason other than Cobalt being propriatary, it might be
> interesting to demand from Sun's Cobalt division the original source code to
> the binary in question...and if anyone knows a good intellectual property
> attorney, it might make for a fun afternoon in conference with Sun's lawyers.
> ;)

No need to talk to Sun's lawyers (unless you're into that kind of thing).
Source level RPMS for all GPL code should be available on ftp.cobaltnet.com.
Contact Sun Cobalt support if you cannot find appropriate source to a GPL
package.

- Lyle