[WBEL-devel] Re: [WBEL-users] Question about RHEL Licensing

[Johnny Hughes]

Everything in this section is in the beginning of the agreement in the
section:

I. Terms and Conditions
   A. GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Define Customer:
any purchaser or user ("Customer") of Red Hat products and services that
accepts the terms of this Agreement ("Customer")

Define "Services":
The term "Services" as used in this Agreement means, collectively, the
Support Services provided under the purchased subscription and defined
herein...

Define "Installed Systems":
The term "Installed Systems" means the number of Systems on which
Customer installs the Software.

Define Software:
The term "Software" means the family of software products purchased
under this Agreement

Section 4 says:
If "Customer" wishes to increase the number of "Installed System", then
"Customer" will purchase from Red Hat additional "Services" for each
additional "Installed System".

It is cut and dry (absolutely no mistaking anything) ... 

On Fri, 2003-12-19 at 11:33, Rodney Holm wrote:
> I dont believe you are violating the license if you install the
> unmodified, pre-packaged binaries on more than one machine.
> 
If a CUSTOMER {someone who bought RHEL} wants to INCREASE their
INSTALLED SYSTEM(S) {the number of Systems on which Customer installs
the Software} the the CUSTOMER will purchase from Red Hat additional
SERVICES {the Support Services provided under the purchased
subscription} for EACH additional INSTALLED SYSTEM.

This means that if you put the Software you obtained from RedHat onto a
second computer without first either buying a Subscription Service or
modifying the software (per the instructions in the agreement), then you
have violated the agreement. 

Assuming you don't want to buy a second subscription, you must properly
modify the Software before installation ... not after
installation....because after installation it is an unsupported
"INSTALLED SYSTEM".  

> 
> All you would have to do with the machine after the install is
> replace/modify some files on the system to be in compliance.
> 
> This would include, removing the Red Hat shadowman from the grub
> boot loader page, and the wording from files like /etc/issue
> and /etc/issue.net.  There are obviously a few more things that
> would need to be 'scrubbed', but it could be done without
> modifying the source rpms and rebuilding.
> 
> 
> The license states:
> "With the exception of certain image files identified in Section 2 below"
> 
> Note the word 'files', It does not say anything about
> restricting the installation of the unmodified binary packages.
> 
So, assuming you can't install the "Software" onto your 2nd computer
without first modifying it (see the info above), how does it need to be
modified.

I would agree that if you rebuilt from source only the 2 items RedHat
specifically called out (and any other packages that have images or
names that are trademarked) then you could copy the other Binaries.  As
long as the average person wouldn't think your distribution WAS RHEL.

So you might not need to rebuild everything ... if you started with one
PAID subscription and modified that Software ... 

But John Morris started without a paid subscription ... which means he
doesn't legally have access to RHEL to make a modified CD with the other
things removed.  In that case, you have to make all the binaries from
source ... because source is all you have available. 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Even if you did make a modified RHEL CD, you could not use the security
/ Errata updates you obtained from your "Support Services" to update
your new machines because of this clause:

The Support Services purchased by Customer are intended for use only for
the benefit of the Customer and only for the Installed Systems with
subscriptions.