🚀 go-pugleaf

/gnu.misc.discuss / williamt@athena1.Sun.COM (William A. Turnbow) /Apr 18 1990/

> Suppose a company were to own the rights to the source for program 'X'
> [and] licenses the code to companies that can then resell the binaries, but
> cannot distribute the source. [...]  if [such a program] were compiled
> for a platform with g++ [...], it seems that the code code would not be
> able to be distributed and would not be covered under the GNU license
> agreement. 

The resulting binary would be covered both by the GPL and by the original
license for X.  If the latter forbids you from distributing it with source,
then, since the GPL forbids you from distributing it without source, the
result is that you cannot distribute that binary at all.  The only
exception is specified in the GPL (system code).

> If that is the case, then wouldn't it be possible to sell the rights to
> source code you wished to protect to an outside party, thus eliminating
> your right to distribute the code?

Of course.  But why would you want to legaly prohibit yourself from
distributing your own binaries?

Jacob
--
Jacob Gore		Jacob@Gore.Com			boulder!gore!jacob