Open Source

31218 readers

510 users here now

All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!

Useful Links

Rules

Posts must be relevant to the open source ideology
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

-8

What's the problem with redhat not wanting to share their code with others? (vlemmy.net)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I see a lot of people angry about redhat's decisions of not wanting to redistribute source code to others but I think that should be completely within their rights. The way I see it is like I am a developer of let's say a music player. I make my source code public because I want people to see what they're downloading and may be get advice what I can change to make it better. I charge $10 for my app. And then someone else downloads my code, compiles it and redistributes it in his name with few changes. Then why would people want to use my app when they get same app for free? I think then, it's completely within my right to make it closed source in that case as that's what I make money from. Sure, my app is based on a free and open source framework but then there's also such a thing as consent

They consented their framework to be used for development. I don't consent my app to be redistributed. Why is it an issue?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

and that those people in turn must be free to use and modify the code as they see fit as long as they also share it with whoever they give it to.

And this is where it falls apart for redhat. They're allowing their clients to download and use the source, but then threatening them that if the source RPMs make it out into the wild then they are at liberty to cancel their agreements terminating their access to RHEL altogether.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It may be allowed by the GPL, if so I am fairly sure that is an unanticipated bug and not a feature. It is a shockingly short sighted attack on free software, specifically freedom 2 and somewhat freedom 3.