FreeTDS Development Group

[Steven Work <steve AT renlabs.com>]

Andrew Pimlott <pimlott AT MATH.HARVARD.EDU> writes:

> On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, Greg Beeley wrote:
> 
> > If we go asserting that 'click-n-sign' EULAs on the Internet might be 
> > invalid,
> > where does that leave things like the GPL and LGPL?
> 
> It does not affect them.  If you reject the GPL, you wind up with rights
> granted to you by copyright law, which would not permit you to distribute
> copies at all.  In other words, the purpose of the GPL is to grant you
> _more_ rights than you would otherwise have. 

Please do not speak nonsense in a public forum, unintentionally.  I
also do not understand the nuances (it's not my field), but:

Copyright grants the holder the right to place restrictions on use and
distribution under contract law.  The copyright holder can choose to
establish just about any reasonable terms s/he wishes; thus RMS's
unusual conditions in the (L)GPL.  If copyright is *not* asserted, the
work belongs to the public domain and no restrictions on use or
distribution apply.

"Copyright law" doesn't talk about rights or burdens on the user or
distributor of someone else's copyrighted work; it says the copyright
holder can place terms (under contract law) on such users or
distributors.

Or something very much like that.

> Not a law-talkin-guy,
> Andrew

Please accept my apologies in advance if you intended to mislead.  ;^)
-- 
Steven Work
Renaissance Labs
steve AT renlabs.com
360 647-1833