On Tue, 2003-08-26 at 18:02, edA-qa mort-ora-y wrote:
The GPL is a contract. Copyright law prohibits individuals from making copies, the GPL effectively offers the right to make copies and more as a benefit of the contract. If the GPL is not a contract, then it is nothing, and you really can't do anything with GPL'd code.
A software license is _NOT_ a contract (although it is somewhat analogous).
In the specific case of the GNU GPL, you do not even have to agree with anything to use the software: we're talking about an unilateral grant of permission to use for any purpose so there's no agreement between two parties.
If you want to redistribute copies or derived works, you are also granted permission to do it, so long as you give the same rights to whoever receives to software.
If you don't want, then this does not apply to you. If you do, you don't have to agree with the author for permission to do it as long as you do it in a certain way.
Where does this fall under contract law where you have to have an agreement between at least two parties and witnesses?
Nowhere. Conclusion: not a contract.
Hugs, Rui