smbclient porting to Handheld device

[Urban Widmark]

On Sun, 25 Mar 2001, Sid Liu wrote:

> Hi Gerald,
> 
> Thanks for your response. I understand the GPL.
> Still, my question is that can I delay the release
> of source and/or only release it when requested for
> nonprofit purpose? Obviously I will prominently
> display that smb client portion of the code is derived
> from samba.

This is answered by the GPL, I believe. And that answer is no.
Are you sure you understand it? Section 3 is pretty clear.

You do not have to release the source until you release the binary. But
anyone who gets the binary also gets the full source, for profit or
non-profit purposes. Section 2b says that a modified version must be GPL
too.

You can require a fee of anyone you give a copy of the program to, but you
can't prevent them from giving away copies for nothing. Everyone who
downloads your modified version receives the full rights of the GPL. You
are not allowed to make additional restrictions.

The point of the GPL is exactly this, you can't take GPL stuff and make it
less free. You got full source, and got to play with that. Now be a nice
netizen and let everyone else get their turn to play too ...


You can get a GPL'ed program under a different license, iff all copyright
holders agree. Or so I have been told (IANAL). I suppose this can be a bit
difficult, who counts as a copyright holder? Just Tridge, or any
contributer no matter how small? Who has copyright on which parts? How do
you know that all relevant copyright holders approve?

Otherwise I suppose you'll have to either just release the source with the
binary or find some other smb client to use.

Suggested reading:
http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/copyleft.html
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/license-list.html
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/selling.html

/Urban