Widespread Linux GPL violations alleged

Oh this can’t be good! It seems that distros such as Simply Mepis be violating the GPL? It does appear this way to me….

Could many smaller Linux distributions be in violation of the GPL? That’s what Warren Woodford, the man behind the popular MEPIS distribution thinks.

As detailed in Bruce Byfield’s excellent NewsForge story, “A GPL requirement could have a chilling effect on derivative distro,” Woodford recently ran afoul of the GNU GPL (General Public License) requirement that downstream distributors of GPL code are obligated to provide source code to users in an easily accessible format.

Woodford’s error was that while he does provide MEPIS’s modified Debian/Ubuntu kernel source code in a Debian source-package, he had not provided copies of the source code that was available somewhere, which he had not modified.

So, for example, say I released Steven’s Special Penguin Sauce Linux. In it, I’d have my own modifications to the kernel source code, and the usual Linux utilities like the vim screen-based text processor. I would have to provide my users with not only my kernel’s code, but also with vim’s source code as well, even though I hadn’t done a thing to its code…. Source: Linux Watch