The two ways they have for getting source code are kind of funny and easy, and kind of makes fun of RHEL in pulling this maneuver, getting so much community backlash and ultimately having so little effect other than to negatively impact future business. But will they go further to violate the GPL? Or concede defeat? Say what you want, but to cut off paying customers if they share source code which is their right under the GPL is a really bad move that exposes the character of those running the company.
I have since changed my overall view on this topic as others brought up their license’s verbiage that seems to be designed to threaten people into not rebuilding their source lest they lose access to their rightfully paid for license, but I’ll comment on this specific point.
Per RHEL, their metrics show that this:
But that’s all kind of a moot point now, since their ToS is kind of damning.
In a way, this seems like a divorced couple quarrel. One party is super angry and felt betrayed, while the other part feels they didn’t do anything wrong and was the actual victim instead.
The community is like “How could you betray our trust! After all these years of our support!” and Red Hat is like “I didn’t do anything wrong! Also, your support is overrated anyway. You’re actually more like a leech.”
“Would” happen? That’s literally what initially happened. They just hoped for something impossible.