Re: [OT] What does 'General Public License' mean?
Henning Makholm [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: What does 'General Public License' mean? Is it 'General' + 'Public License' or is it 'General Public' + 'License'? Both are possible, and it is conceivable that RMS liked the ambiguity whan he picked the term. Hmmm... Does the phrase as a whole have a specific legal or commonly accepted meaning? It is a commonly used name for the document whose full name is "GNU General Public License" LOL! I know what the GPL is. I'm trying to explain some misconceptions about it that have come over and over again on the mailing list of my former LUG, namely, that everything on Linux has to be GPLed, the KDE affair, what does "GPL compatible" mean, and in general, why you can't change someone else's copyright at will (this has came up on to ocassions, one, when Debian GNU/FreeBSD was discussed, and a second one related to KDE), etc. The problem is I have to explain this in Spanish, and I have to start with the name itself. I've always thought it's funny to be able to read "GPL" in two ways (with two, IMHO, rather different meanings), and I was wondering if I was asleep on the particular day my English teacher explained something that might be related to this. I thought the solution might lie on an "accepted (legal) interpretation" for the whole phrase. Is there such a thing? I asked RMS once about this. He had no comment. Using the phrase "general public license" when referring to anything else than that particular document would be silly, because many readers are going to assume you mean that one. Ok... let me put it in another way: are the any common phrases in English that might be somehow related to this particular wording? Or yet in another way: is there a specific legal meaning for "public license"? If yes, how is this meaning changed by saying "General (Public License)"? Or yet antoher: what would "(General Public) License" mean? Who is /not/ part of the "general public"? TIA, Marcelo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [OT] What does 'General Public License' mean?
On Tue, Jun 20, 2000 at 09:34:15AM +0200, Marcelo E. Magallon wrote: Ok... let me put it in another way: are the any common phrases in English that might be somehow related to this particular wording? Or yet in another way: is there a specific legal meaning for public license? If yes, how is this meaning changed by saying General (Public License)? Or yet antoher: what would (General Public) License mean? Who is /not/ part of the general public? While it's true that a good command of the English language helps in understanding the GPL, I don't think that there are very many english classes which spend time on the GPL as a topic. Actually, I'm not aware of any english classes that spend time on the GPL. Here's how I interpret the phrase: Public License -- this license is intended to be reusable by anyone. General Public License -- this license is intended to be useful for most people. A public license that isn't general would be intended to be reusable by a number of people, but maybe in some more limited context. For example, an Okeechobee Public License, if it existed, might be intended for use only by the people of Okeechobee. -- Raul
Re: [OT] What does 'General Public License' mean?
On Sun, Jun 18, 2000 at 08:24:16PM +0200, Marcelo E. Magallon wrote: What does 'General Public License' mean? Is it 'General' + 'Public License' or is it 'General Public' + 'License'? I asked pecisely this question from RMS less than a week ago. His response is that it was originally a license for the general public (thus, general public + license) but now it is more a general license to the public. -- %%% Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho % [EMAIL PROTECTED] % http://www.iki.fi/gaia/ %%%
Re: [OT] What does 'General Public License' mean?
Scripsit Marcelo E. Magallon [EMAIL PROTECTED] What does 'General Public License' mean? Is it 'General' + 'Public License' or is it 'General Public' + 'License'? Both are possible, and it is conceivable that RMS liked the ambiguity whan he picked the term. Does the phrase as a whole have a specific legal or commonly accepted meaning? It is a commonly used name for the document whose full name is GNU General Public License and which describes the licensing terms that apply to most software copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation (in addition to a lot of other software). It is customary to drop the GNU when talking about it, or just refer to the document as simply the GPL. Using the phrase general public license when referring to anything else than that particular document would be silly, because many readers are going to assume you mean that one. Other licenses which are in some senses similar to the GPL frequently call themselves public license but not general. -- Henning MakholmThey want to be natural, the anti-social little beasts. They just don't realize that everyone's good depends on everyone's cooperation.
