[lug] Redhat Enterprise Linux

[Jeffrey Siegal]

Michael D. Hirsch wrote:
>>I believe the Enterprise versions are subject to one license for every
>>machine it is installed on.  So you want 10 servers, you pay for 10
>>licenses.
> 
> How can they justify this?  They are distributing GPLed code, so why can't 
> I just pay for one and install it on 10 or 100 machines?  I can only ask 
> for support on 1, of course, but is there any legalities keeping me from 
> doing multiple installs?

There are a few theories here:

1. Red Hat claims a compilation copyright on the distribution as a 
whole.  A compilation is not a derivative work, and the GPL's mere 
aggregation clause applies, so the GPL doesn't necessarily apply to the 
distribution *itself*, just the component packages.  You can pull 
individual packages from RHEL and copy/install them on as many systems 
as you want, but copying too many of them together would violate the 
compilation copyright.

2. GPL does allow you to install it on as many machines as you want, as 
long as you don't want anything from Red Hat beyond what the GPL 
requires them to give you.  No support, no Red Hat Network, etc.  Most 
of the customers Red Hat cares about for RHEL do want these things, and 
then Red Hat can impose additional terms (like "pay us per system") as 
part of those contracts.