Hi,
Am Do, den 20.11.2003 schrieb Henning Makholm um 01:50:
> Scripsit Joachim Breitner <nomeata@debian.org>
> > Well, doesn't Atmel promise by distributing the .hex files under the GPL
> > to either "Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
> > source code" or "Accompany it with a written offer,
> No. They are the copyright holder, so they can always do whatever they
> want. Slapping GPL on a work is a grant *from* the copyright holder
> *to* everyone else which allows everyone else to distribute and modify
> under certain conditions. Everyone else needs to follow those
> conditions, because otherwise we won't have any permission to
> distribute. But the copyright holder has permission to distribute *by
> default* and does not need a license from himself to do so to do so.
True, but this time it is the otherway around. You are talking about the
usual case where the copyright owner releases a work under the GPL but
still has all rights to do with it what it wants, like selling the
binarys. But when they give me the file, and telling me: here, this is
for you, and your rights are according to this text (the GPL), then they
bound themselves to the conditions they proposed (the GPL). And the GPL
grants me the right to get the source code.
Compare to this: You give a text to a newspaper with this "licence":
* you may read it
* you may print it
Then there is no way I can stop them from printing, after we both
accepted these conditions. Atmel agreed to the condition of the GPL when
they distributed it, and I agreed on them when I downloaded it. A
contract. That grants me the right to get the source code.
Again, this is meant hypothetical, but I think this is an interesting
case.
> > So I guess we should just get a lawyer to make Atmel hand out the
> > source code :-)
> Won't work. In most jurisdictions, the only one who can file suits
> alleging non-compliance with copyright licenses is the copyright
> holder himself, or his legal delegate.
Well, I would sue them for breaking our "contract".
nomeata
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