On Wed, 12 Mar 2003, Lawrence E. Rosen wrote: > SCENARIO: Several faculty members at Prestigious University have created > a marvelous new package that takes input from a keyboard and displays it > on a monitor faster than any program ever has before. They decide to > release it to the public under the name WhizBanger. The P.U. general > counsel tells them to license it using the AFL. He registers, on behalf > of the University, the trademark WhizBanger for "computer software that > reads from a keyboard and displays on a monitor." > > Linus Torvalds learns about WhizBanger and he and his team decide to > include WhizBanger in their new release of Linux. As usual, they > release their new Linux, with full source code, under the GPL. The > Debian project thinks the new release of Linux is wonderful. They > include the modified Linux in their new distribution, also under the > GPL.
By doing so, every distributor of Linux+WhizBanger violates the copyright of a whole lot of contributors to the Linux kernel. > Brian Behlendorf learns about WhizBanger and he convinces the Apache > team to include WhizBanger in their new release of Apache. As usual, > they release with full source code under the Apache license. I'm less familiar with exact requirements of the Apache license. I don't know if it's compatible with the APL. > QUESTIONS: > > - Which of the parties identified above has a possible cause of > action > against any other party? [For the non-lawyers in the house, > consider > copyright law, patent law, contract law, business torts, and > fraud.] The readers of this list perhaps, for lost time over contorted examples. You lost me after the first GPL violation (putting non-GPL-compatible code in the Linux kernel). > - Would anything be different if the AFL were more compatible with > the GPL? At least the first case would - it would be allowed to distribute a linux kernel which included AFL-licensed code. > I'm looking forward to your answers. :-) In my case, you'll need to ask simpler questions. Sorry. -- Mark Rafn [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://www.dagon.net/> -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3