> "You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run
> a copy of the Program."
In the US and several other countries this is indeed the case: the fact
that you were able to get a legal copy of the program gives you the
right to run it, just like you have the right to read a book once you
got it.
IIUC this is a bit unclear (thanks to people whose commercial interests
go the other way), bit is usually considered as falling under the "fair
use" doctrine.
That's why so-called "shrink-wrapped" software usually comes with an
End-User License Agreement (EULA) whose enforcability wasn't clear at
first (when it was just stated on the box) and was made clearer by
having the license displayed at the beginning of the program and the
program refuses to go any further if you reject it: this way, the
fair-use still allows you to run the program without agreeing to
anything in particular, but in order for the program to do anything
useful, you first have to agree to the EULA which happens to restrict
the rights given to you by the fair-use doctrine.
So in many countries (and the intention of the GPL and LGPL) you do not
need to agree to the GPL or LGPL in order to use the software.
You only need it when you want to modify/copy/distribute the software
since these acts are generally protected by the copyright.
Stefan
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