[minot]

personally, i don't owe it to anyone to release my copy the source code as long as i am using the product of the source code privately. for example, let's take a point of sale. at the broadest possible sense of imagination, my pos operators have a standing to demand to see the source code. at no point in time does a customer, who does not directly interact with the pos except in handing my operator their money have a right to look at my source code. richard stallman would, i hope, agree that he does not have a right to look at it either.

free software to me does not mean free for all. a person and an organization can still keep its secrets. (corrections welcome)

[sokoloff]

Correct, but the GPL demands that once you've given the source to your POS operator, that they are then free to share it with anyone and everyone.

So, in your hypothetical, it turns out to be very hard to prevent the distribution of the source, unless all the POS units are held in-house (that you are a company developing and using your own POS units in commerce, as opposed to being a POS vendor) and that all your employees who have standing to receive a copy of the source have some compelling reason to not distribute it.

That's a feature to GPL advocates and a bug to GPL detractors.