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Suppose I purchased a Vertu mobile phone prior to 2017. Also suppose (as I would expect to be the case) at that point I revived an offer to download from their web site the source code for the modified linux kernel that is running the phone, as required by the Gnu Public Licence (GPL).

In 2017 Vertu went bankrupt and the web site and source code disappeared from the internet. I now want to sell this phone but cannot offer access to the source code. Is there a way to transfer ownership of this phone in a way that complies with the GPL?

Note that while this question is phrased in the 1st person it is purely hypothetical, I have not spent £40k on a phone and I suspect there are not linux contributors hunting ebay.

Mike
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1 Answers1

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Yes

The first sale doctrine means that the copyright owner’s interest in the physical copy of the software is exhausted. Any subsequent transfer of the physical object is not a (re)distribution under copyright law.

The GNU license is a contract between the copyright owner and the world, it is not a license that you have or could have ever offered since you don’t own the copyright. In fact, unless you copied or modified the code, you never entered this contract.

In general, non-commercial sales of second-hand goods are “as is” with no implicit warranties. Notwithstanding, you are not selling a licence to the software, only the copy of the software that came with the device. This is the same as if you sold a second hand book.

Dale M
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