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Date:      Thu, 27 Jul 2000 19:58:08 -0400
From:      Dan Flemming <danflemming@mac.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Copyright and payment
Message-ID:  <3980CC8F.B95C0EBA@mac.com>
References:  <Pine.SOL.3.96.1000726232722.7653B-100000@utah> <046f01bff7f5$eb8ae5e0$63770118@lvrmr1.sfba.home.com> <20000728011912.A11069@physics.iisc.ernet.in> <052901bff82b$cffa9010$63770118@lvrmr1.sfba.home.com>

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Frank Warren wrote:
> 
> You must be a fan of Stallman and the FSF.  What you say below is untrue.  I
> went to www.gnu.org and looked at their current (and always changing) GPL.
> >From that GPL we see:
> 
> 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under
> Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1
> and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
> 
> a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source
> code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on
> a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

There's a real important word here. Or.

> b) Accompany it with 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, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1
> and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

This written offer would presumably be made to the client.

> c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to
> distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for
> noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object
> code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b
> above.)

> So what I said was correct.  Upon demand, one must surrender all source to
> any third party if one adds code to a GPL source and redistributes.  

How is it that "or" has become must?

You can fulfill all requirements of section 2 by just delivering the
source in the first place, under clause A.

The third party would also have to be an agent of the client, under
contract law. Contracts only give rights to the parties to the contract.
This is first-year law school stuff. I should know.

> Note also that the GNU page is arguing against software patents in Europe,
> which makes the thrust of this organization pretty clear.

Seperate argument. (Personally, I don't think binaries should be subject
to copyright at all; I think that programmers should have to get
patents, just like other engineers. But that's probably a lost argument.)


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