RE: OFF TOPIC about GPL enforcement (Was: Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: [Libreoffice] Proposal to join Apache OpenOffice)

Ignoring the repetition on who is entitled to source code and how they are told about it, I would 
like to know the answers to some very specific, tangible matters closer to home.  My question is 
basically whether the terms of a GPL license attached to a software distribution are applicable to 
that software distribution, not just downstream derivatives of it.  I assume the answer is yes.

 - Dennis

WHY I ASK

I have a copy of LibreOffice 3.3.2 installed on my computer.  I am looking for any place that I am 
offered access to the specific (or, indeed, any) source code for the LibreOffice 3.3.2 distribution 
that I have installed (en-win-x86).

Looking at the Help | License Information ... tells me about licenses and where to find them, but 
nothing about source code.  If I give this to my friends, none of them will see anything about 
source code either.

If I examine the license, I see that LGPL3 incorporates terms of the GPL3 by reference, and license 
follows immediately thereafter.  The LGPL3 has definitions about source code and it being conveyed. 
 The GPL3 has the details.

The preface to the GPL sys that 

"Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you
want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new
free programs, and that you know you can do these things."

Section 6, which applies to the non-source form of the LibreOffice 3.3.2 that I installed specifies 
a number of ways that source code is still to be made available.  6(d) seems applicable to the way 
I obtained LibreOffice 3.3.2 by download:

"d) Convey the object code by offering access from a designated place (gratis or for a charge), and 
offer equivalent access to the Corresponding Source in the same way through the same place at no 
further charge. ..."

SO WHERE IS IT?

I know of no offer conveyed with the code.

If I go back to the site, all I see are 3.3.3 Final and 3.4.0 Final.  I see nothing that would 
allow me to re-retrieve or find the source of the 3.3.2 that I have in my possession.

If I follow the "Download the source code to build your own installer" (why does that have to be 
the reason?), I see a set of logs that tell me nothing.  Under 3.4.1.1, 3.4.0.2, and 3.3.3.1 I see 
lists of 20-21 tar.bz2's.  

Well, maybe that qualifies.  Maybe not.  But what about for my 3.3.2?

AND ABOUT THOSE DEPENDENCIES

If any of the listed dependencies also have derivatives used, is there some place where, ahem, 
those modified sources are available in some suitable way?





-----Original Message-----
From: Simos Xenitellis [mailto:simos.lists@googlemail.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 13:49
To: discuss@documentfoundation.org
Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC about GPL enforcement (Was: Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: [Libreoffice] Proposal to 
join Apache OpenOffice)

On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 9:59 PM, BRM <bm_witness@yahoo.com> wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----
>
> > From: Simos Xenitellis <simos.lists@googlemail.com>
...
> > Your views are not mainstream; if you  want to gain traction, you should make
> > the effort
> > to subscribe to the  gpl-violations.org mailing list and discuss these views
> > there.
>
> Doesn't have to be mainstream. As I said - there is a very common misconception
> on the issue.

I have moved the discussion to the gpl-violations legal mailing list,
http://lists.gpl-violations.org/pipermail/legal/2011-June/002872.html

Anyone can subscribe at http://lists.gpl-violations.org/mailman/listinfo/legal

Simos

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