GPL and Leased Software?

LordByronStyrofoam asks: "In the body of the article linked in the recent Silicon Valley Has Learned to Love the Bust, Salesforce.com and IBM were said to be planning to lease or rent software. IBM did this for many years back when they controlled the big iron market. It reveals a bottom layer in the cultural strata of software users: those who use Free Software; those who click through EULA's and the associated closed-source licenses; and the lowly renters. Do renters of GPL software have no rights under the GPL? Is this situation similar to the one where the makers of DSL/cable routers don't have to provide the source, even though the devices are based on embedded Linux?"

Comments

The user is /not/ free under GPL

[humming]

You're confusing the GPL license with the BSD license.

Not that it has anything do with your question except the phrasing of it.

To make a long story and a potential flamewar short;

GPL is about making the software free, and imposing restrictions on the user while BSD is about making the user free to whatever they want with the software, including adding restrictions.

Mod me a troll if you want, but remember that the Metamoderators will prove me right! ;)