FreeTDS Development Group

[Jon Pounder <pounder AT inline.net>]

Thanks Steve,

I for one am glad to hear that is what you intended.

Hopefully we can see the agreement ammended soon to reflect this since I
think we are all anxious to actually read the document.





At 01:37 PM 9/15/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Folks,
>
>Our intent was to publish the TDS spec so that any developer could use it
to do something useful.  The legal verbiage was put there primarily to
cover our butts - we don't want to be liable if any software you've written
doesn't work!
>
>I think everyone on this end meant to put the TDS spec out there so it
would be used without prohibitive restrictions.  If that's not the case,
then I'll recommend to our lawyers that we re-visit the download license
agreement so that it serves the intended purpose.
>
>There was no 'trickery' intended.  I think we are seeing a case of our
legal department trying to do their job and protect Sybase; in doing so
perhaps created text that makes the use of the doc seem more restrictive
that it was intended to be.
>
>Regards,
>Steve Olson
>Technical Director
>Sybase, Inc.
>
>
>Jon Pounder wrote:
>
>> I totally disagree with your assertion - copyright law is implied. It
>> grants no one other than the author the right to do anything. Distribution,
>> and copying, fall into this category. If the work is published, then
>> obviously referencing it does not fall into this category.
>>
>> The GPL and LGPL remove a lot of these restrictions on copying and
>> distribution. The Sybase licence does quite the opposite, and goes so far
>> as to make referencing a published document un-permitted under certain
>> circumstances.
>>
>> I sure hope someone from Sybase steps in soon and says "this was not what
>> was intended at all, we goofed with the statement", since in essence what
>> it really says is "anyone who reads this can't work on the freetds project
>> any more."
>>
>> At 10:02 AM 9/15/99 -0700, you wrote:
>> >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
>> >
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>> >
>>
>>         Jon Pounder,   Development Engineer
>>         Inline Internet Systems
>>         pounder AT inline.net Jon AT Pounder.com
>>
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        Jon Pounder,   Development Engineer
        Inline Internet Systems
        pounder AT inline.net Jon AT Pounder.com

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