(no subject)

[Laurent Guerby]

Joerg Schilling wrote:


> While it _is_ possible to stop them to distribute the modified version 
> in binary form, it is not possible to force them to undisclose their
> part of the source. So GPL gives no special help to enforce the freedom
> of the sources.


It is my understanding of the GPL, it keeps freedom for user receiving
the binary to get the source from the people that gave them
the binary if some part of it was GPLed.

It does not prevent someone to take a GPL source, change/extend/merge it to
produce a binary for his/her own use and never release their work to 
anyone as long
as there is no distribution of the binary.

There are companies that port GCC to their own processor for their own use,
such ports will never be made available, this is perfectly
within the GPL granted rights and the FSF is well aware of this.

A license forcing anyone using your source to disclose all changes
is against what I believe the FSF fights for.

If you're looking for a license forcing anyone editing one
of your source to immediately send you the modified sources,
I don't believe the GPL is the right one.

But anyway, we don't have enough context to judge what is the exact
situation, I hope you'll find help and support from the German
"logiciel libre" people.

Sincerely,

-- 
Laurent Guerby <guerby at acm.org>