Re: Linux kills terrorists

[Tim Smith]

[gnu.misc.discuss added]

In article <4e75ec0c3e4b86954f67a4297a8e9047@remailer.cyberiade.it>,
 Cyberiade.it Anonymous Remailer <anonymous@remailer.cyberiade.it> 
 wrote:
> Linux is used in almost all UAV's. It's reliable, completely 
> customizable and cheap. Windows was never even considered since the 
> U.S. air force was afraid a virus would bring down its combat planes.

This raises an interesting question. Suppose Linux were used in the 
on-board systems of a missile. Would shooting that missile at someone 
count as a distribution of the GPLed software used in those onboard 
systems? Is the missile required to be accompanied by a copy of the GPL?

Assuming that it is a distribution, and is accompanied with a written 
offer to deliver source code in a manner customarily used for software 
distribution, if a terrorist were to write to the missile manufacturer 
and ask for the source, would it be acceptable to put that source code 
in another missile and fire that at the terrorist, since that is the 
manner the original software was distributed?

-- 
--Tim Smith