Re: [OctDev] GPL violations

[Jaroslav H. <hi...@gm...>]

On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 10:01 PM, Martin Helm <ma...@mh...> wrote:
> Am Freitag, 27. August 2010, 21:39:49 schrieb Jaroslav Hajek:
>> The BSD allows adding restrictions; GPL does not. So much the facts.
> I know that. My comment was the following hope more clearly (and this is not
> restricted to the discussion about this special website at MC):
>
> How do you or I or anyone else by looking at a code which contains a license
> (be it BSD or GPL or whatever else) know if one is allowed to use it according
> to that license which is mentioned in the code if you cannot trace all the
> places where it was ever uploaded and then downloaded and uploaded and
> distributed again and knowing for every such site the ToS to judge that on
> this unknown way the code took there was a place where the ToS was violated,
> when it is not mentioned in the license?
> You do not know that from looking at the source codes license, I do not know
> that and nobody else.

No, you don't. Neither you know whether someone replaced or modified
the license in the sources.

> Following the logic that such thing is possible means: Stop using any free
> software license immediately you never can know if you do not violate a ToS
> which is not mentioned in the license.

No, thank you, I won't, I'll just trust my instincts. But you knew that ;)

>
>> If you wish, search the previous discussion on this topic. Basically,
>> there were two fundamental questions:
>>
>> 1. Whether it is legal to add restrictions to BSD code when it's
>> redistributed without modifications.
>> 2. Whether it is legal to add such restrictions through an external
>> ToS agreement.
>>
> I allready read this discussions as I follow them for a long time now (and
> also several years on different places). Either there exist free open source
> licenses and they are valid or they are worthless.
>

Such licenses exist, that's a fact.

-- 
RNDr. Jaroslav Hajek, PhD
computing expert & GNU Octave developer
Aeronautical Research and Test Institute (VZLU)
Prague, Czech Republic
url: www.highegg.matfyz.cz