On Tuesday 07 July 2009, steve wrote:
Hi All,
narendra sisodiya wrote:
Hi Steve, I have posted your mail here - http://lug-iitd.org/Articles/Can_Red_Hat_Enterprise_products_fall_under_F OSS If something is remaining - please edit it -
There are a few additions/corrections to the points I made in my earlier post. I received these in the comments on my blog post (from a reliable source). I have also corrected the wiki page.
Q: Can you ask Red Hat to send you a RHEL distro CD if you are not a Red Hat customer ? A: No. Although, it is possible to get the ISO images if you sign up for an evaluation at http://www.redhat.com/rhel/details/eval/.
Q: Can you use the downloaded sources to make a CD ? A: Yes, you may recompile the downloaded sources to create your own RHEL clone. This is exactly what CentOS does. (Note that I change 'RHEL CD' in my initial post to CD, since what you create is a RHEL clone).
And most importantly, I was totally wrong about this: Q: Instead of making copies, can you use the same CD/DVD you received from Red Hat to install RHEL on more than one systems ? A: No, you cannot. Installation of RHEL on more systems than the number of subscriptions you have purchased is considered as redistribution, which implies trademark violation.
Caveat: Copying / Installing with the trademarks would be a violation if and only if such trademarks are not in a GPL package. Thus including trademarks in a GPL package, then adding a superset of licence terms to override the gpl terms will be illegal. Hence I can Copy such a GPL package INCLUDING any trademarks that might be in there eg RH logo in the grub package. Of course things get very murky when other FLOSS licenced code is part of the distro.
I realized this only after I read the "Subscription Agreement"[1] more closely. Curiously enough (and what caused me a bit of confusion) is the differences between the definition of the term 'Installed System' as it applies to RHEL and as it applies to JBOSS.
For RHEL: An "Installed System" means a system on which Client installs or executes all or a portion of the Software, which may be, without limitation, a server, work station, virtual machine, blade, node, partition, or engine, as applicable...
For JBoss: For purposes of the Subscription Services described in this Appendix, the term "Installed System" means a group of CPUs (e.g., up to 64 or up to 256) for which Client is receiving Services.
I had previously assumed, the meaning of Installed System is the system which is receiving services ie: a subscribed system.
ah, well, mea culpa, cheers,
- steve
[1] http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us_3.html
why procrastinate when you can perendinate ?
random non tech spiel: http://lonetwin.blogspot.com/ tech randomness: http://lonetwin.blogspot.com/ what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.blogspot.com/ --------------------