IBM/SCO/GPL (Was: Re: (L)GPL remarks and FreeGIS licensing)

[Rui Miguel Seabra]

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
-- 
+ No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown
+ Whatever you do will be insignificant,
| but it is very important that you do it -- Gandhi
+ So let's do it...?

Please AVOID sending me WORD, EXCEL or POWERPOINT attachments.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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