Re: Zope license
On Fri, Jan 22, 1999 at 01:29:51PM -0500, Raul Miller wrote:
> Bruce Perens <bruce@pixar.com> wrote:
> > > 3) Is it actually possible for a license (as opposed to a signed contract)
> > > to restrict use? My understanding was that copyright law was all about
> > > copying.
> >
> > See the GPL language on this - something like "you haven't signed this
> > contract, but you have no other license to copy or use the software.".
> >
> > IMO you can grant rights while restricting other rights that the user
> > would have had _without your grant_. They have the choice of accepting
> > your contract or not.
>
> They've not written their license in this fashion -- it's perfectly
> legal to distribute a copy of the Zope editor to someone without charge
> (without a contract). So the recipient of such a copy is not bound by any
> such additional contract.
>
> The copyright license is still relevant if the recipient wishes to make
> copies of the Zope editor, but that's not the issue we're talking about.
>
> [This is why we don't need a special "no button" clause in the DFSG --
> such clauses are not legally binding. We may want to add a more general
> clause, however, to reject licenses which claim rights which don't belong
> to the copyright holder.]
Maybe we should add a line to the DFSG similar to:
"Activities other than copying, distribution and modification must not be
covered by the license."
I am not sure how much licenses we consider free would break, but it would
be worth investigating. Furthermore, we could always add exceptions.
Marcus
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