From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Dec 20 23: 0:59 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from guru.mired.org (okc-65-31-201-166.mmcable.com [65.31.201.166]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3A24737B405 for ; Thu, 20 Dec 2001 23:00:52 -0800 (PST) Received: (qmail 89719 invoked by uid 100); 21 Dec 2001 07:00:51 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <15394.56866.830152.580700@guru.mired.org> Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 01:00:50 -0600 To: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen) Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: GPL nonsense: time to stop In-Reply-To: References: <200112182010.fBIKA9739621@prism.flugsvamp.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20011218180720.00d6e520@localhost> <20011219091631.Q377@prism.flugsvamp.com> <0en10ey5jo.10e@localhost.localdomain> <20011219215548.D76354@prism.flugsvamp.com> <15394.43349.782935.475024@guru.mired.org> X-Mailer: VM 6.90 under 21.1 (patch 14) "Cuyahoga Valley" XEmacs Lucid X-face: "5Mnwy%?j>IIV\)A=):rjWL~NB2aH[}Yq8Z=u~vJ`"(,&SiLvbbz2W`;h9L,Yg`+vb1>RG% *h+%X^n0EZd>TM8_IB;a8F?(Fb"lw'IgCoyM.[Lg#r\ X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA v0.42/Python 2.1.1 (freebsd4) From: "Mike Meyer" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Gary W. Swearingen types: > "Mike Meyer" writes: > My "combine copies" was loose writing. I doubt it makes much difference > which term from 17 USC it most closely matches as far as my argument > goes, but for the case being discussed I suppose it would have been > better to say something like "create a collective work" or maybe just > "derivative". > > > This sounds like it's possible for party A to license software S from > > party B, then have the terms of the license changed by party C by > > "combining copies", even though they have nothing to do with A, B or > > any rights to S. That one is a bit hard to swallow. > > I'm not sure I understand the scenario, or at least the reason for it. > > C could "combine copies" of S and something else and create a collective > work (which I think can also be called a "derivative"), but, not owning > S or having license to use it, may not copy or distribute copies of such > work. (Actually, combining copies probably constitutes copying of the > parts an so he probably can't even create the original copy.) > > He certainly may not change any license on S, unless there's something > in this scenario you haven't told me (like something's BSDL'd or GPL'd). Ok, here's a more concrete scenario. B distributes S under BSDL, which is how A gets it. This also means that C can get a copy and redistribute it. In particular, combining C with software T, which is GPL'ed. From what you said earlier, all versions of S are now covered by the GPL, even though the original license was BSDL, not GPL. http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message