selling freebsd cd for profit

[Robert Bonomi]

> From owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org  Sun Feb 28 06:00:33 2010
> Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:59:56 +0000
> From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman at infracaninophile.co.uk>
> To: Erik Trulsson <ertr1013 at student.uu.se>
> Cc: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
> Subject: Re: selling freebsd cd for profit
>
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> On 28/02/2010 11:43:42, Erik Trulsson wrote:
> > The difference is that when you just give a link to a well-known site
> > you have no guarantees that they will keep the source for that
> > particular version of the software in question for as long as needed.
>
> Uh -- so what?  Until the download site disappears, there's no problem.
>  If it does disappear, then /obviously/ you have to make alternative
> arrangements.  But that is a bridge that doesn't need to be crossed
> until you've reached it.

NOT so.  The difference _is_ that people who got the software 'before'
the download site disappeared have _only_ that download site as the
reference for 'where to go' to get the source.

Either you (the distributor) maintain a download site yourself -- so you
  can guarantee that the reference you give out _will_ be good/valid for the
  required time after the last copy of the code you gave out, 
*OR*
  you have to maintain a list of -everyone- who got your code -- directly or
  *indirectly* (this is the hard part, it _is_ freely redistributable, how do 
  you know who it was RE-distributed to?) -- so that, if/when the 'well known'
  site stops carrying the source, you can notify *everybody* where the 'new'
  download site is.


If the place where you 'told' someone they could find source-code disappears
before the expiration of the required time, then you _are_ in violation of the
license, even if the disappearance of that site was 'through no fault of your
own'.  The fact that said source-code is available 'somewhere else' does *NOT*
mitigate the violation of the license terms.