Re: OSD && DFSG convergence
On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 09:35:03PM -0500, Russell Nelson wrote:
> > I'm inclined to believe that your second example is also a minor
> > issue, because if the software is DFSG-compliant in all other
> > respects, it should be possible to legally remove the click-wrap
> > requirement from the code -- just as you can charge someone a fee
> > for giving them GPL software, but you cannot prevent them from
> > giving it away for free once they have it.
>
> Why do you think you can unilaterally change the terms of a license?
Removing code that displays a license and accepts a "yes" or "no" click
doesn't change the license at all.
If you're allowed to remove this code and redistribute the program
without the click-through, then there's no problem; do so.
If the license has a clause saying "you can't remove the code that
forces the user to click through this license"--which would legally
prevent doing the above--then this requirement itself is DFSG-unfree.
Of course, for a click-through license to have any meaning[1], it needs
to be required, so it would need to contain such a clause. So, in
practice, click-through licenses are DFSG-unfree. A clause in the DFSG
making this explicit would be superfluous.
[1] assuming they can have any meaning at all
--
Glenn Maynard
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