Andrew Donnellan wrote:
On 11/4/05, Nathanael Nerode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Any collection of bits is "software". The GPL works very well for any
collection of bits. Some people think that it, particularly the requirement
for provision of source code and the nature of permission to distribute in
forms other than source code, may have problems when
applied to dead-tree printed material. This is easily dealt with
by dual-licensing under the GPL and a printing-friendly license of
your choice.
Well actually no it doesn't solve the problem as you have to comply
with both licenses when dual-licensing.
Then you couldn't dual-license two GPL-derivatives; their two 'no
further restrictions' requirements would prevent you distributing the
work at all. As I understand it, a dual-licensed work contains two
conditional grants of rights; fulfilling the conditions for one
conditional grant grants all the rights you need. The other conditional
grant can't take your rights away, even if you don't fulfil its conditions.
I'd say that dual-licensing would solve this problem, as long as you're
content with only passing on the work licensed according to the one that
doesn't object to it being in dead-tree format.
(Tangentially, could someone please clarify this: to pass on the work
dual-licensed, do you need to comply with both licenses, or does the
copyright statement attached to the work that you've legitimately
distributed under one of the licenses allow your recipient to choose one
or the other just like you could? I'm thinking the latter, but I may be
wrong.)
In any case, could the problem with not providing source be solved by
exercising GPL 3b? Just stick a note in the copyright that the source
code is available. IMO, this is exactly what the GPL is supposed to be
doing: preserving the freedom to modify. This would be curtailed if to
modify a book you first had to scan and OCR it.
--
Lewis Jardine
IANAL, IANADD
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