>From: "Mike A. Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>You're only contradicting me, but you're no lawyer either. My
But I have had several long discussions with lawyers about
Copyright and GPL issues in the past.
The first talk was in 1993 (about one year after the European
Union decided that software is some sort of art and that
Copyright issues on software have to be treated similar to
Copyright issues on books.
The last and more intense have been half a year ago when I started
to sue companies that illegally use cdrecord sources for
closed source applications.
>From what you did write, it looks like you did not even talk to a lawyer before.
>whole point, is that if a _POTENTIAL_ legal issue comes up
>concerning the GPL license, one should err on the side of
>caution, and if possible try to comply WITHOUT needing to seek
>legal council. If you can resolve any licensing issue easily
>enough without bringing the law into it, why not do so?
Well you seem to forget that even contracts may not contain things that
are aginst the law! For this reason it is not a good idea to
leave laws beside.
>And if it isn't easy to resolve (which the cdrdao issue seems
>very easy to resolve now), then one should consider their
>options, and consult a real attorney. Nobody should take what
>*I* say as being correct, and they also should not take what
>*you* say as being correct. Me and you arguing or debating over
>copyright laws or GPL is totally pointless because neither one of
>us is a lawyer, and also you're in Germany, and I am in Canada,
>and the legal systems of our two countries is completely
>different, not to mention, the GPL license itself was created in
>the United States, and the terminology used in it basically
>reflects the USA.
Which is a bad idea as most oft the free software is written in Europe.
For this reason European Copyright laws apply. You need to interpret
the text of the GPL with the European Cpyright in mind.
Jörg
EMail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
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URL: http://www.fokus.gmd.de/usr/schilling ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix
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