Stefaan A Eeckels wrote: > On 3 Sep 2006 18:50:35 -0700 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Perhaps you have misunderstood my statement. I'm saying that does > > GNU demand all your original work to be "taken over" if you use > > GNU code? I guess it does. That's what I mean by "automatic" -- you > > use the GNU code and then either you GNU your whole original > > work or you are violating the license. > > Not GNU - GPL. And no, the GPL does not, and cannot, influence what you > do with your original code. Copyright law gives the author of a work > (which is defined by the law) the right to control if and how it is > copied and distributed. > > It is only when you have a work that contains the original work of more > than one author that there is a "problem" - all the authors have to > come to an agreement on how the combined work will be copied and > distributed. > > The GPL is an offer from the author of a GPLed work to the (potential) > author of a work that would "use" the GPLed work as a component. The > offer says: you can use my work _if_ you either > > * do not distribute the resulting combined work > > * distribute it under the GPL. > > If the offer is not acceptable, you simply cannot distribute the > combined work. You retain _all_ rights to your original work (this even > if you would distribute the combined work under the GPL). You can also > contact the author of the GPLed work and ask her if she would be > interested in licensing it to you on other terms (like the payment of > royalties, or a license fee). If you come to such an agreement, you can > distribute the combined work under another license (or no license at > all, in which case standard copyright provisions would apply). > > _None_ of your original work is _ever_ "taken over" by a GPLed work. > But neither can you "take over" a GPLed work and use it for your own > purposes without heeding the wishes of its author. >
Thanks for your input, but _WHY_ was the GPL originally made this way? *What is the rationale* for having the person GPL the combined work as part of the terms, which includes all the original content? > Take care, > > -- > Stefaan A Eeckels > -- > The one thing IT really needs to outsource is the freakin' clueless > managers that don't understand that there are more possibilities than > chaos on the one hand and the reduction of alternatives to zero on the > other. -- Richard Hamilton in comp.sys.sun.hardware _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss