[Samba] query

Andrew Bartlett abartlet at pcug.org.au
Fri Mar 8 03:52:07 GMT 2002


surya.prasad at iflexsolutions.com wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> We have a licensed product and are proposing to use Samba to share Unix
> directories on Windows clients.
> Samba is no where integrated into our product. As a part of client setup we
> share certain directories from the client workstations.
> Samba being a freeware, how does it affect licensing our product? Are there
> any legal / commercial issues?
> Do I need to acknowledge usage of this component as part of our licensing?
> 
> Request your comments / clarifications.

Samba is Free Software, and as such provides you with the important
freedom to use it commercially as you see fit.  However, you must also
provides the same freedoms to your users - you downloaded Samba a source
and packaged it for your setup.  You must provide your users with the
same, the Samba sources you used, and the scripts that build and install
it on your system.  This is most simply done by including it all in a
tarball on the end of your installation/documentation CDROM.  If you
chose not to, you must include a written offer to provide the same - so
putting it on the CD is much easier.

As to acknowledgment:  While nice (and helpful to users who need to
track down issues etc) the only acknowledgment required is the source
and copyright statement (Printing the GPL in the back pages of a manual
is a nice touch).

This is not a legal interpretation, and I am only one of many copyright
holders - you should seek legal advise if you feel the situation is at
all unclear.  Also, the GPL is a very readable document - well worth the
time spent doing so.

Andrew Bartlett

-- 
Andrew Bartlett                                 abartlet at pcug.org.au
Manager, Authentication Subsystems, Samba Team  abartlet at samba.org
Student Network Administrator, Hawker College   abartlet at hawkerc.net
http://samba.org     http://build.samba.org     http://hawkerc.net




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