Scripsit [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brian T. Sniffen) > Henning Makholm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >> Does this "clear" implication extend to documentation released > >> under a Free licence? Does this "clear" implication extend to > >> literary, visual arts, or audio works released under a Free license? > > I'd say yes, *if* the author *voluntarily* made the software free. > Your emphasis is disturbing: does the exchange of licenses involved > in distributing GPL'd software derivative of other GPL'd software > count as voluntary throughout Europe? Note that using the word "voluntary" is my own invention here; it's not a test that I know courts explicitly to use. But essentially you're right: If the modifier only uses a free license because that will give him some benefits (such as the opportunity to reuse code written by someone else) rather than because he himself believes that software should be free, then it will be harder or impossible to carry my argument through. > That is, is Freedom to Modify and Distribute an essential part of > the artistic character of MySQL, XEmacs, and other works which the > authors would rather have proprietary, but which they can't > distribute except under the GPL? I don't know. Would the authors really harder have them proprietary? If that is the case, it may be possible to convince a court that the law does not distinguish between a Big Bad Media Conglomerate the Big Bad FSF in this respect. However, since the moral rights do not prevent FSF from countersuing for massive infringement (viz. GPL #7), the likely outcome of an attempt to use moral rights to quench a derived work would be that all of XEmacs, including the original, becomes nondistributable everywhere. So the author would have to be particularly sinister or desperate to choose that way out. And I think it would be impossible for the hypothetical Evil Heirs to convince a court that such an outcome is really what the author would have liked. -- Henning Makholm "Den nyttige hjemmedatamat er og forbliver en myte. Generelt kan der ikke peges på databehandlingsopgaver af en sådan størrelsesorden og af en karaktér, som berettiger forestillingerne om den nye hjemme- og husholdningsteknologi."