Re: webmin license
> On Fri, 10 Dec 1999, Tomasz Wegrzanowski wrote:
> > On Fri, Dec 10, 1999 at 04:37:16PM +0100, Gergely Madarasz wrote:
> > > We have software which don't qualify into debian
> > > main distribution because the licence is GPL but with a special clause:
> > > can't be used on microsoft operating systems.
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > point me to one of them
> > i have to see it
>
> remind
Indeed
a) REMIND may not be used under Microsoft Windows (3.0, 3.1, 95
or NT) or any future version of Windows. Such use constitutes
a violation of copyright.
b) REMIND may not be used by Cadabra Design Libraries Inc. or its
directors, nor by any of Cadabra's subsidiaries or their directors.
Such use constitutes a violation of copyright.
c) Except for situations (a) and (b), REMIND may be used and
distributed according to the terms of the GNU General Public
License, Version 2, which follows: [...]
However, I recall reading in a message last week that a copyright licence
cannot restrict the use of the copyrighted material, only the circumstances
under which it may be copied. Indeed, I would find it strange if somebody
added a clause like "this software may only be used in the production of
weapons if those weapons are to be targetted against <my favorite enemy>",
and can hardly imagine that such a clause would be legally binding in any way.
So isn't the remind copyright legally void?
(So maybe the copyright might have restricted copying to machines running M$
software, which would then create interesting problems like: what about
copying on a PC running GNU/Linux, but to a VFAT partition, then rebooting...)
Marc van Leeuwen
Universite de Poitiers
http://wwwmathlabo.univ-poitiers.fr/~maavl/
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