After takin' a swig o' grog, Erik Funkenbusch belched out this bit o' wisdom:
> On Mon, 4 May 2009 16:22:08 +0000 (UTC), Alan Mackenzie wrote: > >>> Day in day out the GPL is turned inside out. It's easy to CLAIM it's >>> easy but fact does not bond with your fiction. >> >> Huh? The GPL is perfectly plain and straightforward and means what it >> says. You don't even need to get a lawyer to explain it to you, though >> you certainly should consult one if you're going to be redistributing >> GPL'd software. > > Here's an example. Some GPL advocates believe that dynamic linking is not > covered by the GPL, while others (including the FSF) believe it is. > > Another example is XMLRPC (or SOAP or other similar technoloties) in which > a function is called via network request on a distributed system. Some > believe that this is covered by the GPL, others believe it isn't. > > Many people think the GPL prevents you from charging money for GPL > software, yet the FSF says they encourage you to do so. > > Many people think the GPL requires you to "give back" your changes to the > author, but nothing could be further from the truth. Even if you consider > the GPL's software requirements to provide source to anyone you provide > binaries that doesnt' require you to give that source to the upstream > authors, only the downstream customers. > > So no, the GPL is *NOT* perfectly plain and straight forward. And yes, you > do need a lawyer to explain it to you, particulary when the issues of > "derived work" are brought up, since the GPL does not define the term and > relies on the accepted legal definition of the term, which is not as simple > as it would seem. > > The only people who do *NOT* find the GPL difficult to understand are those > thoat think they understand it when they really do not. Nice summary of standard legal procedure, corner cases, and descriptions of uninformed people. You know, the tip-of-the-iceberg stuff that people focus on for purposes of FUD, while the vast majority /depend/ on the GPL. -- You are always busy. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
