[cc-licenses] Unbundling the GPL
Joachim Durchholz
jo at durchholz.org
Mon Apr 30 04:15:16 EDT 2007
Greg London schrieb:
> So, you can try to dismiss it as "hair splitting",
> but the point is that GPL protects the community
> from being screwed by someone applying a software
> patent to close off a work from the community.
Right, it's (trying to) protect *the community*.
Not the software.
Which is exactly my point.
It's really hair splitting about terminology, but since some people make
subtle differences, it's important to get the language right to avoid
exactly this kind of discussion.
> Worse thing that happens is they say
> "GPL has some patent protection"
> and then someone manages to find a loophole in
> the GPL that somehow allows them to use a patent
> to make the work nonFree. And at that point, no
> one is going to point fingers at CC and say
> "Why didn't you warn me that the GPL patent protection
> wasn't perfect!"
That's exactly the scenario that it had in mind.
And finger-pointing is exactly what will happen in such a case.
-Jo
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