Date: 18 Dec 2001 16:15:31 -0800 From: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen) To: Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: GPL nonsense: time to stop Message-ID: <b4itb4ysik.tb4@localhost.localdomain> In-Reply-To: <20011218193510.A23697@tisys.org> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20011217222907.028403b0@localhost> <Pine.LNX.4.21.0112180119550.29122-100000@ugrad.unbc.ca> <4.3.2.7.2.20011218095233.028ea920@localhost> <20011218193510.A23697@tisys.org>
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Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> writes: > Furthermore, I don't currently see a legally or real-world enforcible way > to restirct the output of GPLed software. I don't expect to see that happen, but I'm quite sure it's possible. AFAIK, people can agree to any legal activity as conditions on the licensing of copyrights (or any rights) in forming a license contract (or even in a non-contract license) and courts will honor it. Like "you may modify and distribute this software only if you wear a red hat on odd-numbered days". Or "...only if you put copyrightable output of the program under GPL". They're just conditions to which the licensee agrees in return for the use of the copyrights; they're a kind of fee. (Of course, many outputs of programs are uncopyrightable translations of program input (eg, a compiler), but many ouputs are not (eg, a word processor).) It's rather like how the M$EULA can have you agree that you will not disassemble the code, even though that would be a legal activity in the absense of such term. It's a little different, as savvy copyleftists would be quick to note, in that the M$EULA is a license of both copyrights and the right to possess or execute, while the GPL seems to be a license of only copyrights. I was going to say that since this seems important to copyleftists they probably wouldn't change it easily, but since there probably is no GOOD reason, maybe they'd give it up to gain something more important. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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