Is linux free 4987
Well, para 3 does.
They can charge for the medium, not for the source or access to the source. #3b says:
... a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code ...
I'm playing no such games, in my judgment. There are many such situations with which we all have...
(so the price is specified, 0 for source and x for medium, for a total of x). And #1 also affirms:
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
I quoted it to you, and it says that the source of a GPL program is free of charge to the person the program...
Does any of this force the distributor to let you have the source code for free (plus distribution cost)? Yes. #3 enumerates what you may do.
a) give the source code away together on the same shebang as the progam.
b) promise to give anybody at all the source at cost of medium.
c) point to offers a) or b) or c) in the place you got the prgram from.
My paraphrasals, of course. In a), the GPL says "accompany the program with", not "give away with", but that's synonymous. And in (b), it restricts the time of the offer to three years.
But the three possibilities are all there are, and they don't include "charging for the source" because each of the three possibilities specifies the price of the source, and it is zero in each. Or are you looking for a getout via 3c) (the recursion) say pointing back to an original author who then charges for source?
Peter
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