On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, Henning Makholm wrote: > I think Alexander's point may have merit. If you distribute whatever > precise bits it was that the copyright holder waved a copy of the GPL > over, those bits must be assumed to be "the Program", and as such GPL > #2 gives you right to distribute a modified version of the bits. At least, the way I read the GPL, 2 gives you the right to distribute a modified version of the Program Source (which is what 1 covers). 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, [...] 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions: [...] Now, I suppose you could construct an argument that the binaries were the "Program's source code" as you received it, but I don't really think that's an appropriate argument giving the rather clear wording in 3. > 1. This is clearly a wording oversight in the GPL. I'm not sure that > Debian should base its decisions to distrtibute things on such > loopholes. Yeah. I actually was running a slightly less pathological case, eg, where a binary (or other difficult to modify form) actually was the prefered form for modification by Eben Moglen recently, and he wasn't particularly happy about it either. [I wouldn't be surprised if an attempt is made to clean up this ambiguity in subsequent versions of the GPL.] Don Armstrong -- There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more. -- Woody Allen http://www.donarmstrong.com http://www.anylevel.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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