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Date:      23 Dec 2001 22:39:45 -0800
From:      swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen)
To:        dwalton@acm.org
Cc:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Does Linux violate the GPL?
Message-ID:  <09n109t93i.109@localhost.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <20011223161559.0f20faa8.dwalton@acm.org>
References:  <20011223153232.4b562a74.dwalton@acm.org> <15398.28461.605242.845831@guru.mired.org> <20011223161559.0f20faa8.dwalton@acm.org>

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Dave Walton <dwalton@acm.org> writes:

> Rats.  I knew there was going to be a mistake in my wording somewhere. 
> When I wrote "use", I was thinking of something along the lines of
> "incorporate and distribute".

And when Mike wrote "use" (in "Neither BSDL nor GPL place any
restrictions on *use* of the covered work."), he was apparently thinking
of something along the lines of "execute" (or maybe also "incorporate
and execute").  Let's all keep in mind that source code has many uses
and using just "use" is likely to be ambiguous or just wrong.  Mike's
statement (without the BSDL part) is common misleading GNU-speak used in
their propaganda.  The fact is that both BSDL and GPL place restrictions
on the use of the covered work.  If not, we would say the work is in the
public domain.

P.S. You said in a previous post that the BSD license doesn't allow
something.  I hope you've also noticed the BSD licensors allow almost
anything.  I've never heard of even a polite request to stop
infringment, let alone cease-and-desist letters and lawsuit threats.
It seems to be understood by licensors and licensees alike as just a
way to put code into the public domain with a declaimer of liability 
and request for attribution.

Along the same lines, note that what the GPL seems to say is often
significantly different from what GPL licensors say it says and often
from what they insist upon (also often different things).

The guys that ignore all the fine print might have the right idea,
since there's little that one can do about it anyway.

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