Land Warrior

[Bryan O'Neal]

Never mind, I did not see the rest of the thread. 

-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us [mailto:plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of der.hans
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 12:41 PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: Land Warrior

Am 26. May, 2007 schwätzte Tuna so:

> Apparently the Army's Land Warrior system runs Linux.
>
> http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4215725.html

Interesting. Where can we buy those displays?

> But here's my question: Where's the code? Don't they have to release 
> the source code if it's open source?

If it's your code under the GPL and you don't release the binary to anyone you don't have to provide the source.

The government isn't allowed to own copyright, so most likely the software is provided by companies. If they're providing it under the GPL they only need to offer to provide the source code to those who've gotten the binary products. In other words, they can offer the source code to the government, but don't have to offer it to anyone who isn't buying these units.

The government isn't under obligation to release the source code. If you thought for more than 2 seconds about the possibility of this government releasing military info it doesn't need to release you wasted your time.

The source code doesn't necessarily have to be GPL (I didn't read the whole article, so maybe I missed something saying the application code is GPL), so it might be proprietary.

The GPL only affects modifications to GPL code bases or code that depends on GPL code. Generally, if you interface with the GPL code via and API you're not subject to the GPL. The Affero modification to the GPL covers this case, but the GNU GPL does not.

If you're including a library that's under the GPL you'd be subject to the GPL. The easy way to avoid that is to write your own library and not use one that's been GPLd.

ciao,

der.hans
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