Re: Misguided EULA for GPLed software

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Scripsit Mika Fischer <mf@debian.org>

> The most problematic part of it is IMHO this:
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> THE USER MUST IN ADDITION AGREE TO ALL TERMS OF THE GNU GPL LICENSE
> AGREEMENT. 
> 
> IF THIS SOFTWARE WAS DOWNLOADED FROM A LOCATION OTHER THAN THIS WEBSITE
> AND THROUGH THE STANDARD DOWNLOAD URL OR WAS DOWNLOADED USING A METHOD
> TO AVOID ACCEPTANCE OF THIS AGREEMENT NO RIGHTS SHALL BE GIVEN TO THE
> USER. 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
...
> So I figure there must be something badly wrong here and since I can't
> figure out all the consequences this might have,

The consequences is that the software is inconsistently licensed and
cannot be distributed legally by anyone at all (except original author).

> I would like to talk to the authors about this issue and see if we can
> resolve it.

You could explain to them that

1) The GPL does not contain any clauses that apply to the *user* (in
   contrast to someone who *redistributes* the software), so the first
   of the paragraphs you cite is meaningless.

2) The GPL is fundamentally incompatible with allowing only downloads
   from a "canonical" source.

3) If they include any third-party GPL code in their software, they're
   violating its license terms.

-- 
Henning Makholm            "Make it loud, make it complicated, make it long,
                   and make it up if you have to, but it'll work all right."