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 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1efdd369be089610 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1025b4,1d8ab55e71d08f3d X-Google-Attributes: gid1025b4,public From: Ronald Cole Subject: Re: what DOES the GPL really say? Date: 1997/08/25 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 268471069 References: <33F13EBC.373@ix.netcom.com> <5tg9or$msl$1@news.nyu.edu> Organization: RidgeNet - SLIP/PPP Internet, Ridgecrest, CA. (760) 371-3501 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,gnu.misc.discuss Date: 1997-08-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: kenner@lab.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner) writes: > Discouraging something is not *restricting* it, at least in the sense > to which a legal document (like the GPL) means. > I've said this before, but the analogy is the difference between > things that are considered rude by society and those that are > considered illegal. The first set is always a significant superset of > the latter. Oh, bullshit, Richard... The GPL plainly says "To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights." It seems clear that "discouraging free distribution" is equivalent in effect to asking you to surrender the right to distribute. It seems clear because, if ACT's "wavefront" customers did exercise their right to distribute, Dewar has posted that "[ACT] would probably reluctantly decide to stop making them available". Is this not punishing a "wavefront" customer for exercising their right? Any further objection from you, it would seem, would necessitate your demonstrating that punishing individuals for exercising a right is not the same as taking away that right away from individuals. -- Forte International, P.O. Box 1412, Ridgecrest, CA 93556-1412 Ronald Cole Phone: (760) 499-9142 President, CEO Fax: (760) 499-9152 My PGP fingerprint: E9 A8 E3 68 61 88 EF 43 56 2B CE 3E E9 8F 3F 2B