Hacker News Reader

Comment by dsr_ | Hacker News Reader

It's nice that they are clear, now:

No Red Hat unless you pay them for it. If you pay them for it, you can't redistribute it.

> If you pay them for it, you can't redistribute it.

Citation please? I've sat in enough conference rooms full of lawyers to know the GPL explicitly forbids this, so it would be bordering on insane if this is what they're proposing.

Apparently they changed their license so they can cancel it when you request sources.

"apparently", huh? The internet said so?

When you request sources and use it to assist a RHEL rebuild project, that is.

No change, it's been like that forever. What changed is what was made available for free even without signing the agreement.

RH doesn't prevent you from redistributing the sources of a GPL'ed RHEL binary. That is indeed explicitly allowed by the GPL, nothing they can do about it. What they can do, however, is cancel your RHEL subscription if they catch you doing it.

IANAL so I can't say whether this constitutes a "further restriction on redistribution" per the GPL, but evidently RH lawyers don't think so.

If you take advantage of the GPL clause that allows you to redistribute the code that built the binaries that Red Hat provided you (which, according to the GPL, you're allowed to do), Red Hat is under no obligation to provide you with new binaries - and therefore no requirement to provide you updates to that code.

IANAL, but that doesn't break the GPL as far as I can tell.

It's more clever than that:

You are allowed (per the GPL) to redistribute the sources that they give you on request with the binaries. But as soon as you do that, they will cancel your support contract so you can no longer get any updates (source or binary) as well as support.

Is it legal? I've read informed opinions both ways

I believe it’s their Terms and Conditions of using their portal to download the source.

Sure, GPL will let you redistribute but their T&Cs say that if you do, you’re cut off from their portal (or something similar to that effect)

See (d)

Unauthorized Use of Subscription Services. Any unauthorized use of the Subscription Services is a material breach of the Agreement. Unauthorized use of the Subscription Services includes: (a) only purchasing or renewing Subscription Services based on some of the total number of Units, (b) splitting or applying one Software Subscription to two or more Units, (c) providing Subscription Services (in whole or in part) to third parties, (d) using Subscription Services in connection with any redistribution of Software or (e) using Subscription Services to support or maintain any non-Red Hat Software products without purchasing Subscription Services for each such instance (collectively, “Unauthorized Subscription Services Uses”).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com