GNU Compiler license

[Michael Meissner]

On Wed, Dec 06, 2000 at 10:25:24AM -0600, Sam TH wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 06, 2000 at 09:46:59AM -0600, Ken McLeod wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > First, if we do not integrate the GNU compilers with our IDE, do we still need a license to distribute the GNU compiler on our CD with our products?
> > 
> 
> You already have a license to distribute GCC, that is, the GPL.  If
> you do distribute GCC as a standalone product, you merely need to make
> an offer to distribute the source to GCC, which is just a matter of
> mirroring the gcc sources on your website.  

No, assuming this is a commercial release.  The GPL reads:

  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.)

So mirroring it on your web site, doesn't quite follow the rules (unless you
can promise that it will remain there for 3 years).  The simplest approach is
#a above, putting the source in your distribution.  Then you won't violate the
rules if say, your webmaster deletes the source a year from now.

-- 
Michael Meissner, Red Hat, Inc.
PMB 198, 174 Littleton Road #3, Westford, Massachusetts 01886, USA
Work:	  meissner@redhat.com		phone: +1 978-486-9304
Non-work: meissner@spectacle-pond.org	fax:   +1 978-692-4482