Re: Dangerous precedent being set - possible serious violation of the GPL

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Seth David Schoen <schoen@loyalty.org> writes:

> What is the difference between "mere aggregation" and "a collective work
> based on the program"?

Murky.

However, *if* Caspian argues that his distribution is a collective
work (which is necessary for him to make reservations about how it can
be redistributed) *then* he'll have to apply the same definition to it
when we are discussing the GPL. Which means that if he includes any
GPLed software in something he thinks is a collective work, he has to
license *all* of it under the GPL. Which means that Corel, or RedHat,
or IBM, or Microsoft have the right to download it and make an FTP mirror
available exclusively for people with large beards.

-- 
Henning Makholm                        "Nej, hvor er vi altså heldige! Længe
                                      leve vor Buxgører Sansibar Bastelvel!"