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=1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, MSGID_RANDY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a2c7f6cbdb72aa16 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robert Dewar Subject: Re: "proprietary", was Re: ada on linux Date: 2000/06/05 Message-ID: <8hf6bi$73b$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 631120381 References: <8h9r89$n5d$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <8haraq$k3j$1@pyrite.mv.net> X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x55.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.14 Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. X-Article-Creation-Date: Mon Jun 05 03:21:34 2000 GMT X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDrobert_dewar Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.61 [en] (OS/2; I) Date: 2000-06-05T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <8haraq$k3j$1@pyrite.mv.net>, "Jeff Creem" wrote: > I know in cases I have been concerned about, I have had to stay away > from libraries that are pure GPL (not talking about GNAT here) for my > projects > since there are projects where portions of the source code are classified > (by > the government). Absolutely! An author who decides to use the unmodified GPL is most definitely making the decision that you CANNOT use the software in this manner without negotiating a separate license. And that's the author's right under current copyright law. > that if > some third party approached the company and said that they wanted a copy > of program X from us that we would have to give it to them (but we could charge a fee).. This is complete nonsense. But it is a VERY common misconception. The GPL never forces you to distribute a program. If ACT suddenly decided to make no more public versions available, that would be perfectly in accord with the GPL requirements. As I have said many times before the fact that ACT makes public versions available is not required by the GPL, it is simply something that ACT decides to do for the general good of the Ada community. > Perhaps this is just another misconception..A while back a > sent e-mail to FSF asking specific > questions about the GPL in this and other areas...I got some > answers but > the rest of the > reply said these are hard questions and I got no answers... There is absolutely NO reason to expect the FSF to provide you with free legal services. The fact that they did answer some of your questions is entirely up to them. > We do of course have our own legal department that could look at these (and > has) but > I am often concerned that they give me answers for what the believe they can > get > away with based on the licenses and not what the original intent of the > license is. (again > another personal belief that is probably wong). You always have to ask your own lawyers what you can and cannot do under a license if it is not clear to you! Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.