Alexander Terekhov <[email protected]> writes: > Hyman Rosen wrote: > [...] >> You miss the essential difference - when you download a copy of >> a GPLed program, it is you who is making the copy, and therefore >> you are bound by the license (if you choose to be; if not, then > > Let NYSD.USCOURTS.GOV know about that, Hyman. <chuckles> > > http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/pdf/D02NYSC/01-07482.PDF > > <quote> > > unlike the user of Netscape Navigator or other click-wrap or shrink- > wrap licensees, the individual obtaining SmartDownload is not made > aware that he is entering into a contract. SmartDownload is available > from Netscape's web site free of charge. Before downloading the > software, the user need not view any license agreement terms or even > any reference to a license agreement, and need not do anything to > manifest assent to such a license agreement other than actually > taking possession of the product. From the user's vantage point, > SmartDownload could be analogized to a free neighborhood newspaper, > readily obtained from a sidewalk box or supermarket counter without > any exchange with a seller or vender. It is there for the taking. > > [...]
But I can't take the "free neighbourhood newspaper", snap photographs of its underwear models and sell them to underwear admirers. That is, I am free to take the literal existing copies. I can hand them on. But nothing allows me to create my own copies with my own copying mechanism or _modify_ existing copies and create derivatives for distributing. What I _can_ do is grab every free neighbourhood newspaper I can get and sell them on Ebay. But I can't make my own copies or modifications without permission and distribute them as original works. -- David Kastrup _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
