Hi,
I would like to know is there a way in Fedora to ship only binaries of a free/open source software.
Upstream releases the sources under a free/open source software license, but, would like one to register (for free) at their website before downloading the source. They want to be able to track who downloaded the sources.
So, would it be possible to ship such software as binaries in Fedora, without "yumdownloader --source" providing the sources?
SK
On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 12:11 PM, Shakthi Kannan shakthimaan@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
I would like to know is there a way in Fedora to ship only binaries of a free/open source software.
Upstream releases the sources under a free/open source software license, but, would like one to register (for free) at their website before downloading the source. They want to be able to track who downloaded the sources.
So, would it be possible to ship such software as binaries in Fedora, without "yumdownloader --source" providing the sources?
In a word: No.
The longer answer is that this might be technically legal (depending on the license), but Fedora would never do so. Access to source (including the SRPMs we use to build binaries) is effectively philosophically non-negotiable. Additionally the process by which software gets into Fedora demands access to source, from the package review, to building in koji, etc, and at all the points along the way that source is accessible to the world.
--David
On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 10:41:01PM +0530, Shakthi Kannan said
Hi,
I would like to know is there a way in Fedora to ship only binaries of a free/open source software.
Upstream releases the sources under a free/open source software license, but, would like one to register (for free) at their website before downloading the source. They want to be able to track who downloaded the sources.
If it's a true free/open license then it grants redistribution rights and only one person/entity would need to register to download the source. If such redistribution is not allowed then the license is not acceptable for fedora anyway.
-- Geoff
Shakthi Kannan shakthimaan@gmail.com writes:
I would like to know is there a way in Fedora to ship only binaries of a free/open source software.
This seems rather contrary to the entire purpose of open source.
Upstream releases the sources under a free/open source software license, but, would like one to register (for free) at their website before downloading the source. They want to be able to track who downloaded the sources.
You should ask on fedora-legal, but I think you will be told that if they are requiring that then it's not actually freely licensed.
regards, tom lane
On Mon, 2012-01-16 at 22:41 +0530, Shakthi Kannan wrote:
Hi,
I would like to know is there a way in Fedora to ship only binaries of a free/open source software.
Upstream releases the sources under a free/open source software license, but, would like one to register (for free) at their website before downloading the source. They want to be able to track who downloaded the sources.
So, would it be possible to ship such software as binaries in Fedora, without "yumdownloader --source" providing the sources?
If there is a restriction in their license that the sources MUST be downloaded through their (free) paywall, then the sources probably aren't actually using an acceptable open-source license.
If the license is actually appropriate, then there's no reason not to ship the sources.
But it's never acceptable to ship something in Fedora without the sources being available in a source RPM.
On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 10:41:01PM +0530, Shakthi Kannan wrote:
I would like to know is there a way in Fedora to ship only binaries of a free/open source software.
<snip>
It's my understanding that shipping binary-only is not compatible with Fedora's goals. Packages necessarily need to be buildable from source code in order to be packaged for distribution. Unless it's firmware and meets some very specific restrictions [1], it's probably ot going to happen.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:LicensingGuidelines#Binary_Firmware
Hi,
--- On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 1:01 AM, Frank Murphy frankly3d@gmail.com wrote: | Who are upstream? --
Upstream does release their sources under the GPL license. They just want to know how many people downloaded it.
http://esl.epfl.ch/3d-ice.html
Thanks for all your feedback. Appreciate it!
SK
On Tue, 2012-01-17 at 09:00 +0530, Shakthi Kannan wrote:
Hi,
--- On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 1:01 AM, Frank Murphy frankly3d@gmail.com wrote: | Who are upstream? --
Upstream does release their sources under the GPL license. They just want to know how many people downloaded it.
http://esl.epfl.ch/3d-ice.html
Thanks for all your feedback. Appreciate it!
SK
I'd check with Legal on this one. According to http://esl.epfl.ch/page-51743-en.html
"IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Any usage of 3D-ICE for research, commercial or other purposes must be properly acknowledged in the resulting products or publications. Specifically, the publications 1 and 2 below must be cited in all cases."
This looks to me (IANAL) to be in direct violation of the GPL license.
packaging@lists.fedoraproject.org
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Darryl L. Pierce -
David Nalley -
Frank Murphy -
Geoff Reedy -
Shakthi Kannan -
Stephen Gallagher -
Tom Lane