On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 8:34 AM, Simon Hobson <linux@???>
wrote:

> There was one other thing that came to mind earlier ...
> If ${company} decided to do that, and they had previously distributed
> binaries ... doesn't the GPL mean they are required to provide the sources
> to anyone they've distributed the binaries to ? So removing the sources
> from public repositories would actually be a breach of the GPL (given some
> limitations regarding timing).
> And that raises an interesting problem for other people distributing
> binaries. If (say) I were distributing binaries for ${foo} and relying on
> (say) a git repository for providing the source - where would that leave me
> if those git sources suddenly disappear ?
> Certainly something for anyone building systems to bear in mind. I know
> lots of people who take the attitude - don't keep it, you can download it
> again.
>

My understanding is that the source must be made available for 3 years
after the last binary was made available.
See Section 6:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html