Re: Cairo bindings and e-mail license virus bombs

[sbelmont700@gmail.com]

A license is not an inherent part of a file (any file); the license is something you and the vendor agree to, whether via a webpage, handshake, signed contract, or whatever.  Binary libraries, for example, don't have any licensing information 'in' them, yet whatever terms you and vendor come to is what's in effect, essentially forever, assuming that it's legal in the first place.  Nobody can change this after the fact.

As far as needing to know whether what you are given was the vendors to legally give you, regardless of the license, is like AdaCore says: your responsibility.  So yes, if FSF did something unscrupulous in the first place, then anything that uses FSF files is called into question.  But everything in life is like this, not just software; if a man on a street corner sells you a 10 carat diamond ring for $39.95, and it turns out to be stolen, you have to give the ring back to the owner (but, at the same time, have ground to sue the seller for recompense).

-sb