[ubuntu-uk] The genius of FSF

[Matthew East]

> Mark Harrison wrote:
>> Mac wrote:
>>> You do have to hand it to Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen and their
>>> colleagues - the genius evident in GPLv3 just takes your breath away:
>
>> I'm no lawyer, but in the UK at least, there are at least two problems
>> with the "legal analysis" here:
>>
>> - I had understood that a new contract / law could never apply
>> retroactively. I believe that the same applies in the US.
>> - I had understood that a contract could not be used to cause a party to
>> commit a criminal offence. In the UK at least, such a contract term
>> would be struck down by the courts (and usually, any contract would
>> include a clause that explicitly said that if one part of the contract
>> were found to be illegal, the rest still stood.)
>
>
> As I understand it, GPLv3 is not a contract;  it's a waiver of copyright
> that passes to those who also waive copyright.  This is what's so clever
> about it - it just doesn't work like a contract or licence.  I think
> this is why patent/copyright lawyers have such trouble with it:  it's
> anti-matter!

This isn't accurate. The GPL is a license (hence the "L") by which (among
other things) the licensor and copyright holder grants the licensee the
right to use and redistribute the program subject to certain conditions.

A license is a type of contract, in this case between the program maker
and the user/redistributor.

Matt
-- 
Matthew East
http://www.mdke.org/