Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2002 14:38:24 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Ian Pulsford <ianjp@optusnet.com.au> Cc: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@ofug.org>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Abuses of the BSD license? Message-ID: <3CAF78E0.5EBD3351@mindspring.com> References: <200204051922.06556@silver.dt1.binity.net> <3CAE7037.801FB15F@optusnet.com.au> <3CAEA028.186ED53E@optusnet.com.au> <xzpd6xdqboj.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <3CAEFFAF.5C31E634@optusnet.com.au>
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Ian Pulsford wrote: > License can only be granted by the copyright holder. The BSD licence I > outlined (and the BSD licence with the "advertising clause") don't > mention anywhere that license (ie. permission) is given to add extra > licences. If license isn't given then you have to assume that is not > part of the licence. If I buy a CD and nowhere is it mentioned that I > am not allowed to copy and redistribute it, I don't automatically have a > licence to do that. It depends on whether you own the CDROM media, or not, at least in the United States. The US has a doctorine called "first use", in which, if you buy something, and own it, then you can dictate what people can and can not do with it. This has been tested in courts many times, in video piracy, software piracy, and CD, record, and tape resale cases. Simply put, the doctorine permits you to copy the contents of media you own for your own use, as many times as you want, and you are even legally permitted to give away these copies (but it is illegal for you to sell them). This is why such incredible effort has gone into software licenses to indicate that you do not own the media, that what you have purchased is a license to use, and that the media belongs to the publishing software company. > Note, this doesn't make the BSD licence any more strict in that you > cannot incorporate it in your software, just that wholesale copying > without retaining the licence is illegal. Yes. Definitely. Given the licensing, its really silly to try and change it anyway, since it's as unrestricted as it can be without being in the public domain, and it's not in the public domain in most cases, simply because placing something in the public domain prevents the author from including a hold harmless and preventing the use of their name without permission. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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