Ubuntu founder doesn't "get" enterprise Linux

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Thu, 1 Feb 2007, Craig White wrote:

> On Thu, 2007-02-01 at 15:31 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
>> Alan wrote:
>>
>>>>> It's not possible to "redistribute" Red Hat Enterprise Linux in that
>>>>> sense, because it isn't about bits on disks its a service, support and
>>>>> the like deal. How are you going to "redistribute" the telephone support
>>>>> service ... ?
>>>> So what's the point of prohibiting the code and update redistribution?
>>>
>>> All the SRPMS are on the web site for free download by anyone. The
>>> binaries contain things like the Red Hat trademarks and logos that are
>>> associated with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the whole service and
>>> support deal, so you'd have to rebuild them anyway.
>>>
>>> The update service is exactly that a *service*.
>>
>> That doesn't really answer the question of why redistribution of
>> unmodified products and updates should be prohibited.  Or why calling
>> such a restriction 'closed' is off the mark.
> ----
> I don't recall anything/anyone saying that redistribution is prohibited
> with the exception of the trademarks/logos which are part of the RHEL
> packaging.

If you subscribe to the service, you get some level of support and access
to the binary distributions (media and/or ISOs and individual RPMs) and
the update service (and other system management services, depending on
what you pay).  In return, you agree not to install or run ("all or part
of") the binary distributions on unsubscribed systems you own.

A case could be made that you can't redistribute the ISOs because they 
contain trademarks/logos.  In that case, the only legal way to get ISOs is 
from Red Hat.  Individual SRPMs are publicly available, so you could get 
those and redistribute them or compile and package them and redistribute 
that.  That's what CentOS et al. do.

The actual license is here:

https://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us.html?country=buying+a+Red+Hat+Subscription+from+Red+Hat&

>
> Craig
>
>
>

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs