Re: [OctDev] GPL violations

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

On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 10:55 PM, Judd Storrs <js...@gm...> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 4:15 PM, Jaroslav Hajek <hi...@gm...> wrote:
>>
>> No, you don't. Neither you know whether someone replaced or modified
>> the license in the sources.
>
> Only the copyright holder can pursue infringement claims or modify
> licensing.

No. If the license allows it, you can redistribute the source under a
modified license. For instance, you can take a BSD code and
incorporate it into Octave. The result is distributed under GPL. The
incorporated source may (and often does) carry the BSD header, but
effectively it *is* covered by GPL. If you take that source from
Octave, it is still covered by GPL; you can't "downgrade" it back to
BSD. If you take a copy of the same source code from elsewhere (i.e.
not "filtered" through a GPL'ed project), it's under BSD.

> The BSD license does not transfer ownership neither does it grant
> the right to modify the license. If you think otherwise, please cite the
> text of the BSD license that grants these rights.

"Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:"

The only modification may well be adding a license restriction. If you
think otherwise, please cite the text of the BSD license that forbids
this :) Of course this *doesn't* apply back to the copy that the
original author has on his disk. It *does* matter where did you get
your copy from, even if it may be difficult to prove.

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