EU Copyright..

Alfred M. Szmidt ams at kemisten.nu
Sat May 4 12:12:04 UTC 2002


* Florian Weimer writes:
> ams at kemisten.nu (Alfred M. Szmidt) writes:
>> * RIBNITZ Robert writes:
>>> More precisely, I am unclear about the terms Free Software and
>>> OPen Source Software. Do you know of any Software that is both
>>> open source, and non-free, or that is free, but not Open Source?
>>  All Free Software is Open Source Software.

> Not true.  Using the distribution restriction option in section 8 of
> the GPL is not compatible with the Open Source Definition, section
> 5.
Sorry? Where does the GPL discriminate against a person or a group?

To quote section 8 of the GNU GPL [1]:

8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates
the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

And section 5 of the Open Source definition [2]:

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

The GPL is an approved Open source license, so you are the one who is
wrong. [3]

[1]: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
[2]: http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.html
[3]: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html

-- 
Alfred M. Szmidt



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