On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 08:48:04AM -0400, Joe Moore wrote: > Josselin Mouette said: > > Le mer 13/08/2003 ? 14:20, Sergey Spiridonov a ?crit : > >> Yes, encrypted system will be a problem if I will try to sell > >> encrypted FDL books, so that one can read, but not copy or modify his > >> copy. > > > > That was probably the intention, but the wording makes it unclear. > > > > However, everything depends on how the *software* author (not the > > license author) reads it. Without explicit clarification from the > > author of the FDL'ed stuff, the licensing is non-free. > > Even with explicit clarification from the author, a license that depends on > the "free" interpretation by the author fails the DFSG "Tentacles of Evil" > test. > If the author/copyright holder can change his interpretation (without > changing the license or the work licensed) and make the work non-free, then > the work is not free. They can't change a statement they made that "Yes, I consider this acceptable under this license" retroactively, since there are no termination/modification clauses in the license. They can do so for new releases of the software only - which is effectively changing the license. Now, if the license *did* have termination or modification clauses in it, then we do indeed have this problem. -- .''`. ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield : :' : http://www.debian.org/ | `. `' | `- -><- |
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