Hi Folks,
I am leasing out computers to a customer of mine. I will retain ownership of the computers. Here is what I am doing software wise:
1) Install the standard distro of gNewSense on a "Master PC"
2) Create an unprivileged user. Set passwords on the admin account and on
the unprivileged user.
3) Install some VOIP software (Twinkle)
4) Edit the nautillius xml files, gconf-editor and pessulus to lock down
this user to only allowed them access to Twinkle and Firefox (I.E.
strong desktop restrictions)
5) Image the partition using partimage
6) Deploy the image on multiple PCs which we own
7) Install the PCs on a customer site for them to use (We will be
retaining ownership of them, however leasing them out to this company
for their use)
Now, I realise that my obligations under the GPL is to release the source code. In the lease agreement, there will be a clause saying that the customer will not be allowed to modify any software running on those machines under lease. Now, I know that this may be refered to as "Tivoisation" however, does that really apply here, since I *own* the computers?
I was thinking of placing the following notice on my customer's intranet site:
Quote:
#Start GPL info
Some of the software distributed to you as part of your agreement with <my business name>, has been licensed by the respective copyright holden under the GPL V2 license. You may receive a full copy of the license by visitng http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html or by writing to:
The Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Please note that while <my business name> retains ownership of the computers provided under the lease agreement, GPL and other open-source licensed software does not fall under this lease agreement. This means that you are the licensee of said software and are entitled to the following things:
1) Corresponding source code of any GPL software running on those machines.
2) To redistribute the GPL'ed binaries to your hearts content, as long as you remain in compliance with the respective GPL agreement.
3) To modify the source code to your hearts content, provided you remain in compliance with the respective GPL agreement.
Please note that while the GPL license entitles you to the above, the following restrictions have been put into place regarding the leased computer hardware which fall under your agreement with <my business name>:
1) Any software or firmware installed on the leased computers must be chosen, installed and configured by <my business name> engineers. You are prohibited from changing any software running on those machines without prior agreement. This does not affect your right to modify the software running on the machines, as long as you make and execute your modifications on a computer which does not fall under your lease agreement with <my business name>.
2) "<my business name>" and the <my business name> logo are registered trademarks. While you are free to modify and/or redistribute GPL'ed software, this does not include the words "<my business name>" or the <my business name> Logo. To put it simply, if you wish to redistribute the software running on the leased computers outside of your organisation, we ask that you remove both of those trademarks.
Download Links:
Source Code:
- Orignal Operating System source before <my business name> modifications
- Twinkle VOIP Softphone
- Pessulus Lockdown Editor
- <my business name> "diffs"
Images:
- Orignal ISO (no <my business name> modifications)
- Hard Disk image deployed on all leased computers (Includes <my business name> modifications and trademarks for use within your organisation)
- Hard Disk image deployed on all leased computers with <my business name> modifications but with trademarks removed
#End GPL info
|
I'd really appreciate everyone's comments on what they think about the above agreement. It is not my intention to violate the GPL, or go against the free software spirit. It's just that I'm providing a managed solution and wish for all the computers to remain exactly the same
Thanks,
Jonny
