On Wed, 2003-03-19 at 19:51, Jakob Bohm wrote: > I don't know, but if there are not, and a lot of people start > using such licenses, the big media companies are likely to get > their supporters in government to enact an amendment stating > that just because the copyright holders of *some* works > protected by a technology authorize locksmithing, this does not > allow ordinary citizens to create, distribute or possess tools > which can also crack the works copyrighted by the big media > companies. If it ever does become the case that I or anyone else, as the copyright holder of a work, can not legally grant permission to modify that work through necessary technical means, then I suggest to you that my options are very limited: a) move; b) stop writing and using OS software; c) be proud of being a felon; d) get the law changed; or e) get the government changed. [(e), of course, being a more severe form of (d)]. If the country is the obvious one, then I suppose Debian's immediate options are to move or disband the project. I supposed that SPI would insist on being legal, and that (d) or (e) would be too time consuming. Anything else would be a violation of GPL 7. > > Looking at it from another perspective, anti-copy-protection > clauses in free software licenses are intended to deal with two > unrelated issues: > > 1. Someone might store a copy of the free software in a > copy-protected format thereby subverting the virality of the > license. First off, I assume you mean "distribute", not just store. I don't care (and I doubt you do) what format I store software on my own computer. Second, IMO, the GPL already covers this. See GPL 6's may not impose further restrictions, and GPL 7. Someone, by using a copy protection algorithm that can not be legally circumvented, impose a restriction on my "exercise of the rights granted herein." I'm pretty sure that would also violate GPL 7, which even gives non royalty-free patent licenses as an example.
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part