CURRENT port of OpenSSH for Windows available

[Corinna Vinschen]

On Thu, Aug 02, 2001 at 10:20:21PM +0300, Pekka Savola wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Aug 2001, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 02, 2001 at 08:20:47AM -0700, Sean P. Kane wrote:
> > > Just thought that I'd point out that there is a CURRENT port of OpenSSH
> > > for Windows available at http://www.networksimplicity.com/openssh/
> > > <http://www.networksimplicity.com/openssh/>  . I stumbled upon it today
> > > and noticed that it was mentioned on your web site. It is OpenSSH v2.9p1
> > > on Windows and includes ssh, scp, and sftp clients and servers.
> >
> > Which is EXACTLY the Cygwin version of OpenSSH. Unfortunately Mark
> > has packed it w/o the sources for Cygwin which violates the GPL.
> 
> Umm, how exactly does that violate the GPL?  The sources just have to be
> available (upon request, if not to all) for those who have gotten the
> binaries.  Aren't they?

That's not enough to comply with the GPL. Just a mail snippet from
our GPL expert:

========================
We (Red Hat) use 3a, which means every binary file we distribute must
be accompanied by sources - on the same site/media/whatever.  With 3a,
you (the distributor) must guarantee that the sources are available to
every recipient of the binaries - which means you can't rely on
someone else's site, or a different type of media (cd vs floppy vs
web), because if you do you can't guarantee that the sources are as  
available as the binaries.  [...]

3b is an option for anyone, but there are three reasons to avoid it.
First, "written" legally means a legal document, which implies *paper*
or some other legally enforceable contract.  That's very hard to do
with an ftp site (especially as the document needs to be dated, and
re-dated every day, and cryptographically signed with a legally
accepted electronic signature), and I think popular opinion is that 3b
just isn't an option for internet delivery.  Second, you *must* keep
*every* set of sources around for three years from the *last* time the
binaries were available.  That's expensive, both in space and effort.
[...]
========================

Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen
Cygwin Developer
Red Hat, Inc.
mailto:vinschen at redhat.com