GPL and Leased Software?

Posted by Cliff on Friday May 2, 2003 @10:06AM from the tricky-licensing-issues dept.

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?"

3 of 169 comments (clear)

"Silicon Valley Has Learned to Love the Bust" by macshune · 2003-05-02 10:11 · Score: 4, Funny

Given the name of the place, you would think they'd done this years ago!
GPL v3? by SHEENmaster · 2003-05-02 10:14 · Score: 4, Funny

or clarification of the term "distribution"

I'm gonna call the manufacturers of all my embedded stuff now. Wasting company time is a great hobby, I recommend it for everyone.

--
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Hey, is Slashdot getting Googled? by UrGeek · 2003-05-02 10:44 · Score: 1, Funny

I got to this article from Google News. Does anyone know if Slashdot had a big increase in traffic because of this?

"That Instant Karma gonna get you!"