“Corel took a baby step toward creating a consumer version of
Linux on Tuesday by releasing a beta of Corel Linux to a limited
group of developers. The move was met by instant protest from open
source advocates opposed to its licensing restrictions…”
“Developers may also have misunderstood some of the language in
the agreement, O’Brien said. The clause in question was designed to
prevent the distribution of Corel’s proprietary code, which had
been added to the already available Linux code.”
“These portions are new — we’re not sure how they’re going to
run, and wanted to release it to a few testers first,” O’Brien
said.”
“Perens allowed there may have been room for
interpretation.”
“The question is, did they ‘distribute’ the software,” he
said. “The GPL doesn’t talk about beta testing, it talks about
distribution. If the company was releasing Corel Linux to a few of
its own employees, it could make the point that it was an internal
test.“