On Wed, Oct 08, 2003 at 11:36:23AM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote: > The violation wouldn't be DFSG-related (the DFSG doesn't say anything > about patents, only about licenses).
"License" is relevant to both patents and copyrights. If software is affected by an enforced patent, and a license to that patent is not granted, the work is non-free. More importantly, the DFSG talks about required freedoms. If freedoms for a work are actively being restricted by eg. trademark or patent law, then the work is just as non-free as if they were restricted by copyright. For example, if the Official Use Logo was placed under a permissive copyright license, but maintained strict restrictions under trademark law, then the freedoms required by the DFSG are not available--it would still not be DFSG-free. Using laws other than copyright to restrict freedom is not a loophole to main. -- Glenn Maynard