From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,d0f6c37e3c1b712a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news2.google.com!postnews.google.com!i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: "Ludovic Brenta" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada in Debian: most libraries will switch to the pure GPL in Etch Date: 28 Jun 2006 05:41:41 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <1151498501.908028.152030@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com> References: <1151405920.523542.137920@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com> <1151422118.772405.307200@j72g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <87ac7ypaaa.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> <1151493268.24349.37.camel@localhost> <1151493690.24349.39.camel@localhost> NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.190.145.10 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: posting.google.com 1151498507 32543 127.0.0.1 (28 Jun 2006 12:41:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:41:47 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <1151493690.24349.39.camel@localhost> User-Agent: G2/0.2 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; fr-FR; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040116,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) X-HTTP-Via: 1.1 SEVPXS01 Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com; posting-host=212.190.145.10; posting-account=ZjNXewwAAADyBPkwI57_UcX8yKfXWOss Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:5211 Date: 2006-06-28T05:41:41-07:00 List-Id: Georg Bauhaus wrote : > Does someone know whether the right to use something is the > same as a license, and on what continent, or island? The right to use falls outside of the scope of copyright law. Copyright law only deals with the right to copy, modify and redistribute. This is explained in the preliminary notes of the GPL. If a licensor wants to restrict or control usage of their software, the only way they can do this is by signing a contract with the licensee. For example, Java's license has, or used to have, a clause that forbids use in the nuclear industry or in life-critical applications. Such clause is null and void from a legal perspective, because the licensor has no right to control or restrict usage of their software, but only copying, modification, and distribution. (there are of course good technical reasons why only a pointy-haired manager would use Java in life-critical applications, but that's not the point). -- Ludovic Brenta.