GPL rules with borrowed application

[list at akfoerster.de]

Am Donnerstag, dem 12. Feb 2004 schrieb Axel Schulz:

> I do not know all the legal aspects of the GPL but I could 
> imagine that you cannot publish a software under the GPL and 
> disallow to take copies of the software at the same time. 
> That would contradict the GPL, wont it?

Agree

> In this case, I suppose, software and hardware are easily sepereatable. (?)
 
> "Fredrik Lundgren" <zoldac at hotmail.com> schrieb am 12.02.04 10:21:00:
> > 
> > Lets say I have developed an GPL'd application and put it on some hardware, 
> > a pda. I then let someone borrow the pda, and NOT giving him/her permission 
> > to take a copy of the application. Must I still give that person the source 
> > code?

If you ask just because you are low on memory space: 
a written offer to provide the source code on request is enough.

The GPL says in section 3b:
|    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;

> > If the person pays a smaller amount of money for the time he/she uses the 
> > pda, does the answer from the previous question still apply?

That price doesn't matter at all.

Just the price for providing the source code is limited 
as described above.

-- 
Tschuess
	Andreas