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> Why is Red Hat obligated to release source code.

Because the GPL requires them to do so for their users. They are circumventing this by making anyone who re-publishes the source (allowed by the GPL) ex-users.

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I see. But I thought RHEL is a distribution. The issue here is that they are making patches to software and keeping all the patches behind a paywall ? My understanding is that packaging source code can be any license, not needed to be GPL.

That's not the issue. There's nothing wrong (neither legally nor philosophically) with sources being behind a paywall, as long as all their binaries are behind the same paywall too.

You see many confused people talking about that around, but they're just that - confused. The real problem is that there's a threat of termination of your paid plan once you exercise your GPL freedoms, which is at best fishy. Technically you still have access to all your GPL freedoms, but the GPL states that there must not be any further restrictions, and this certainly feels like one.

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