Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 16:19:03 -0500 From: "G. Adam Stanislav" <adam@whizkidtech.net> To: David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: GPL alternatives Message-ID: <19990520161903.C235@whizkidtech.net> In-Reply-To: <000c01bea2f0$f2e335a0$021d85d1@whenever.youwant.to>; from David Schwartz on Thu, May 20, 1999 at 11:45:36AM -0700 References: <19990520093943.B240@whizkidtech.net> <000c01bea2f0$f2e335a0$021d85d1@whenever.youwant.to>
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On Thu, May 20, 1999 at 11:45:36AM -0700, David Schwartz wrote: > > license which allows to "make other distribution arrangements > > with the Copyright > > Holder." > > I don't think any license could prevent that. It's hard to see how the > author would become subject to the license in the first place. He doesn't > need the license to grant him any rights to his own software since he > already has them. That is not what I said (although I did say at other times GPL could be interpreted that way). The making of other arrangements does not refer to what the author can or cannot do. It suggests to anyone who would like to make such arrangements with the author that the author may be willing to negotiate. It is generally hard to imagine that the author of gpled software would be willing to negotiate. After all, his use of GPL indicates that he subscribes to a philosophy that allows no exceptions to GPL principles. So it is good to see a license which expressly states that other arrangements are negotiable. As for the author having rights: They can be sold or otherwise assigned to someone else. In that case the author no longer has those rights (or can have some but not others). In most case, though, he can recover them after a period of time. In the case of work for hire, however, the author never owns any rights to his work. Of course, in that case he does not have the right to license anything anyway. :-) As for my contention that GPL can be interpreted as giving away all of your rights, that is only one possible interpretation and would most likely not prevail in court (in my opinion). But then, as the case of the famous football star has shown, you never know which way a court decision would go... Adam To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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