Alex Hudson wrote:
The GPL will only be part of the contract if it is ACTUALLY part of
the contract (read the contract).
As the sole-owner licensor does not need GPL permissions in order to
distribute and so is not bound by GPL constraints for so distributing.
I think you're missing my point.
I'm not saying the original author is distributing under the terms of
GPL, just that if they claim to do that but fail to perform, recipients
may have some kind of recourse.
Thanks for clarifying that, it certainly is an interesting point.
I wonder if sometimes (as folk are often careless with documents) they
may unintentionally appear to claim to be distributing under the GPL
when in fact they are distributing under their ownership rights - or
even (if it came to that) if it would take a court to make a decision. I
say appear to claim because if they were not aware of the apparent claim
then it will be a hard case to make that they actually did claim.
I think a strong argument for the licensee would be that the GPL under
which they are licensed to distribute is useless until they receive the
source and they could perhaps use that to show there was a commitment to
provide the source in order to make the licensee's license effective. I
note that the only provision to rescind a license under the GPL (or to
loose rights)(not the same as remove power to exercise the retained
rights, such as patent restricions) is for the licensee to fail to
follow the terms of the license - i.e. the licensor cannot otherwise
rescind the license, it seems to me. This point would be of interest here.
This may help convince the licensor to cough up the source but could not
put the licensor under any other obligations other than those required
to permit the licensee to fulfil their obligations; i.e. the licensor
could still make non-GPL distributions as well (hopefully without the
GPL license attached as well!)
Sam
Sam
_______________________________________________
Discussion mailing list
[email protected]
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
