On Wed, 2006-09-06 at 22:16 -0400, Shidan wrote: > I honestly don't think these points would ever stand up in court. How > can you include something > and say you can use it and freely redistribute and in fact you can > modify it even as long as > you redistribute your modifications but then claim because of your > trademark your earlier statement is not valid.
Since copyright and trademark law is different, and since the gpl only covers copyright, the answer I got from the FSF is that generally they would ask the person releasing GPL stuff the way Digium does to no longer call it GPL or to change their trademark policy. This is because they are going against the spirit and intent of the GPL by putting barriers in place against distribution. I got this response by emailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] regarding this issue specifically. But then the FSF also didnt seem to like the loader.c module that forces all modules to be GPL by way of a lockout code preventing you from releasing gpl compatible modules for example LGPL. But then the courts already ruled that its a legally invalid tactic when lexmark did the same exact thing. see http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+GPL+Compliance which has links to that case and other stuff. I asked last year what had to be done to make asterisk GPL compatible, if a list of things exists that you had to change to be able to redistribute it under the GPL and was verbally attacked by digium staff for asking that question. If you are basing a business around Asterisk you would want to know that what you are doing isnt going to land you in court, so it seemed relevant to this list. I have even tried to get their legal department to speak up on some of these issues, and clarify digiums intent. Dead air. http://licensing.digium.com/view.php?id=13 And whether or not they would stand up in court do you want to pay the legal costs to 'win' ? Not to mention the time not working on real stuff because you are in court. -- Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com Bret McDanel Belfast IE +44 28 9099 6461 DE +49 801 777 555 3402 Utrecht NL +31 306 553058 US WA +1 360 207 0479 US NY +1 516 687 5200 FreeWorldDialup: 635378 http://www.trxtel.com the VoIP provider that pays you!
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