+ (which means all copyrighted material added must be under
GPL-compatible licenses.)
+ Complete, Corresponding Source (CCS) of that work provided, under GPL.
+ The licenses terminate upon violation …
+ … thus failure to comply means lost distribution rights.
+ … enforcement uses this rights termination as leverage to
restore compliance.
# Enforcement is Technical
+ Copyleft's policy goals related to technical acts.
+ modifying, building, and installing software is a technical process.
+ In embedded systems, this process is rarely straightforward.
+ Yet GPL requires that such be possible.
+ In enforcement, we talk about “the CCS adequately meeting GPL's requirements”
# Compliance-Friendly Development
+ Use revision control ...
- ... to pull in vendor branch.
- ... to tag releases.
+ Avoid "Build Guru" ...
- ... by documenting build process.
- ... and versioning it, too.
# GPL Binary Requirements
(v2 § 3, v3 § 6)
+ Four options:
- Source alongside binary (v2/v3).
- Offer for source (v2/v3).
- Internet side-by-side distribution (v3).
- Torrent distribution (v3).
# Source Alongside Binary
+ Simplest option
+ **Obligations end at distribution time.**
+ Physical media required.
# Offer For Source
+ Useful if not shipping CD already.
+ Lasts three years.
+ Mail fulfillment required (not in v3).
# Side-By-Side Distribution
+ Not in GPLv2, pedantically speaking.
+ Always been considered compliant for v2.
+ v3 clarifies this.
# Peer-to-Peer Distribution
+ v2 obviously couldn't consider this.
+ v3 allows distribution of equally seeded source and binary.
# Preparing Corresponding Source
(v2 § 3, v3 § 1)
+ Make sure all sources are present.
- revision system helps a lot here.
+ Build scripts
- make sure someone skilled in art can build it.
# Termination
(v2 § 4, v3 § 8)
+ v2 is automatic and permanent.
+ v3 has auto-reinstatement.
- 60 day self-correction timeout.
- 30 day penalty-less after notice.
+ Usually, you need copyright holder to reinstate.
# Actual Enforcement
+ [*The Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement* at sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html](https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html).
+ Send a Letter, carefully finding right person.
+ Communication is key.
+ Ask for CCS candidates.
# The "Rounds"
+ Ideally (it's only happened to me twice) the first source release is
