Dear FSF,

I just received the agreement terms from RedHat, in answer of licence term
questions I asked them during LinuxExpo in London, 6-7 october 2004.

At RedHat booth, the commercial staff insisted on the fact that to run a copy 
of RedHat Linux (Fedora out of the scope here), you MUST purchase a service
called RedHat Network (RHN). I insisted asking if I could install a copy of
legally purchased RedHat Linux on some supplementary computers, not using their
update service nor RHN from those hosts, and the answer was clearly "No". I also
asked if I was authorized to still run a system after having cancelled the RHN
subscription, and the answer was also clearly "No". I wondered if this was
compliant with the terms of the GPL, that covers most of the GNU/Linux system
RedHat sells a distribution of. My conclusions are those:

As you can see in the RedHat EMEA Subscr
 iption Agreement, "4. REPORTING AND
AUDIT. If Customer wishes to increase the number of Installed System, then
Customer will purchase from Red Hat additional Services for each additional
Installed System.". But in the GPL, I read "6.  Each time you redistribute the
Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives
a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program
subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.[...]"

I think imposing the purchase of a commercial service such as a RHN subscription
is against the terms of the GPL, that covers most of the GNU/Linux software
suite...

So, I wonder what is the FSF position about this. Is it legal to impose a
recurrent service fee based on the amount of installed systems when running
GPL
 'ed softwre ? Is it legal to forebid the use of a system after such a
subscription expired or has not been renewed ?

I have nothing against paying for a valuable service, such as RHN, or for a copy
of a well shaped distribution, but I can't accept the terms and conditions of
RedHat until I'm convinced by you that they are compliant with the words and the
spirit of the Free Software as defined in the GPL by the FSF.

Thank you for your answer. I'm looking forward reading you.

--
Brent Frère

Private e-mail:  Brent@BFrere.net

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