Re: software licensing

[Raul Miller <rdm@test.legislate.com>]

john@dhh.gt.org <john@dhh.gt.org> wrote:
> I can now sue him and any one he gave copies to and force them to
> destroy the illegal copies. If the same happens with GPL code, I can
> still fire the employee, but I can do nothing about the copies.

But distributing it to your employees under these conditions violates
the GPL, which means that you didn't have the right to distribute it
to your employees.  Even if you tell your employees to never tell 
anyone about this illegal distribution, are you going to never fire
anybody?  Because as soon as you do, you have somebody that is no
longer under your power who can tell all about how you're violating
the law.

And, I don't think a non-disclosure contract can prevent disclosure
of illegal activities.

Then again, if no one cares that you've distributed the software
illegally (rather like the stuff that KDE has re-released under
non-GPL terms), it won't make a whit of difference.

-- 
Raul