On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 8:05 AM, Mitul Limbani mitul@enterux.com wrote:
GPL doesn't restrict someone to sell a gpl software to others, just that the buyer is not aware of the 4 freedoms he is entitled with.
As I understand, with GPL, all you need to do when you sell software is to make the code of the software available to the buyer. In case of some embedded products, the code is available as downloads from their websites. The seller is in no way _required_ to publish his code online just because he is selling GPLed software. He only has to make the code available to the person he sold the software to. He could even do it on paper if he wants to :)
After that it is the wish of the buyer if he wants to publish the code online or use it for his own purpose or sell it.
Companies like Red Hat, Novell(?) make code available for no cost online as a goodwill, not because they are required to do so by the GPL.