Re: what DOES the GPL really say?

[David Kastrup <dak@mailhost.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de>]

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Ronald Cole <ronald@ridgenet.net> writes:

> Isaac@yellow.submarine.pla (Isaac) writes:
> > You're position leads to the conclusion that if I give GPL'd
> > code to someone, I have to be personally responsible for making sure
> > that everyone on earth who wants it gets it.
> 
> Not at all!  Yes, everyone on earth who wants it should be able to get
> it, but that doesn't necessarily mean from you...

That's what "responsible" means.  Responsibility for something does
not mean that I have to personally do it.

> Unless of course
> you are hoarding, in which case they can only get it from you.  I
> can't think of a better way to make such persons reevaluate their
> behavior with respect to the GNU Manifesto.

I can't think of anything offhand that would at once ascertain the
"availability" of GPLed code better than the current version, be
legally binding, *and* encourage people to put things under the GPL.

Don't misunderstand the GPL: it is a user licence.  It just defines
the rights and conditions for somebody *getting* that piece of
software.  The legal *owner* of the software can do anything with it,
including releasing the same or derived versions of the software only
commercially and refusing to further distribute it.  Even if the GPL
wanted to regulate the owner of the software, it hardly could.

The best you can do is sue for unfair advertising (or what it's
called) if somebody announces GPL software for getting popular or
harming competition and does not provide it.  But this is not a matter
regulated by the GPL, and cannot be.  Actually, you have to show this
is intentional, and this is pretty hard.  Which is why few bother to
persecute the hosts of ghost announcements for products never coming
up, or at vastly later times, some big players with big legal
departments issue in order to harm their competetion.


-- 
David Kastrup                                     Phone: +49-234-700-5570
Email: dak@neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de       Fax: +49-234-709-4209
Institut f�r Neuroinformatik, Universit�tsstr. 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany