Ask HN: Is it legal to charge for GPL source code?

8 points

9 years ago

I was reading the user manual of a device I got and they offer the source code of GPL software they use, but charge a fee.

The following is what's written on the user manual of the device:

"GPL Declarations The device contains – in part – some free software (software licensed in a way that ensures your freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software). This free software is also contained in the firmware update files that are distributed together with the software installation packages. The free software contained within the firmware includes a version of X-LOADER, U-BOOT, LINUX, LIBSYSFS, LIBUCI, LIBUSBIP, ETHTOOL, UCLIBC, QT and BUSYBOX.

Further, for at least three (3) years from the date of distribution of the applicable product or software, we will give to anyone who contacts us at gplcoderequest@<redacted>.com, for a charge of no more than our cost of physically performing source code distribution, a machine-readable copy of the complete corresponding source code for the version of the software that we distributed to you."

So, is that legal?

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