On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 4:08 AM, Matthias Julius <li...@julius-net.net> wrote: > No, a license cannot protect any work or restrict what one can do with the > work. It can only give permissions. Of course, these permissions might > have some conditions (like BY-SA). The protection comes from the law > (copyright, database right, patent right, ...). What is not restricted by > the law is permitted.
Depends how the license is written. If it's written as a unilateral conditional waiver (GPL, CC-BY-SA, Artistic License 1.0), then indeed it can only give permissions. However, if it's written as a bilateral contract (ODBL), then it might give permissions *and* impose restrictions. In the latter case, it's also very difficult to enforce. See Jacobsen v. Katzer for an explanation of these principles, which, while not directly applicable outside the jurisdiction of that particular court of appeals, gives a very sound explanation of the legal principles which should extend far outside its particular jurisdiction. _______________________________________________ legal-talk mailing list legal-talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk