On Wed, Mar 03, 2004 at 07:08:09PM +0600, Grendel wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Mar 2004, David Hart uttered the following immortal words,
>
> > And what's with the 'punish' and 'scare' bit anyway? Do you really
> > think that's an attitude that that will help the cause of Free software in
> > the minds of most people - to be seen as litigatious(sp?) and out for
> > revenge? There's more than enough of that in the world already.
>
> Its just that
> 1. We have a fine license called the GPL.
>
> 2. However we dont know how it would stand out in the court of law, the
> law is widely open for debate, and we have to know the legality of the
> GPL.
The law is quite clear IMO. If you distribute GPLd software without`
complying with its terms, standard copyright comes into effect which
means:
YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AT ALL
If this is in any doubt then so is the business model of all commercial
software vendors.
> SCO has called the GPL unconstitutional, well I am not subscribing to
> their views, but we need some kind of legal ruling for the benefit of all
> who use the GPL. There are certain constituional rights, and it would be
> interesting to see if the GPL comes into conflict with them or not.
I think here you're closer to the real problem in that there are many in
government who would happily outlaw/hinder F/OSS for the bribes (campaign
contributions, or whatever) from certain commercial interests.
But this is something which, IMO, needs to be dealt with at a political
level if we are to maintain and develop an environment where F/OSS can
survive and flourish.
--
David Hart
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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