Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2001 10:56:52 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> Cc: Dirk Myers <dirkm@teleport.com>, freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BSD, .Net comments - any reponse to this reasoning? Message-ID: <3B449C54.EC88E204@softweyr.com> References: <20010630174743.A85268@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010630173455.T344@teleport.com> <20010701032900.A93049@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010701132353.W344@teleport.com> <20010702152649.A18127@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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j mckitrick wrote:
>
> | There's *no* license that can trump the rights of the copyright
> | holder. There's *no* license that can allow someone who doesn't own
> | the copyright to close off the code. But licenses which meet the
> | Open Source definition (let alone the Free Software definition) don't
> | allow the copyright holder to revoke the permissions in the license.
>
> So what you are saying, then, is that 'Free Software' in the FSF definition
> is not just GPL'ed, but also has the copyright signed over to the FSF so
> they can 'insure' that the code will remain forever GPL'ed? If so, that is
> damn scary.
No, that's exactly how license and copyright law work. If you write a book
and then sign a contract with a publisher allowing them to make unlimited
copies of your book, you cannot later decide you don't want them to publish
it anymore and revoke that license, unless they agree. (You would be a fool
to sign such a contract.)
This is exactly what the GPL *and* the BSD license are, an unlimited license
to copy your work. This doesn't infer any rights for others to copy any other
works by you, including later revisions, but you can't go back and change
the license terms on the version you sent out.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com http://softweyr.com/
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