Re: copyright question
Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net> writes:
> Scripsit tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)
>
> > Unfortunately, it lacks permission to distribute modified copies
>
> "... and to alter it and distribute it freely"?
While all logic and reason might say that is good enough, it at least
one notable case it wasn't: Pine.
There are three separate things:
A: permission to modify
B: permission to distribute verbatim
C: permission to distribute modified versions
It is possible to grant both A and B without granting C; morover,
grants are read narrowly, so the court presumes you are giving away
fewer rights, not more, when the wording is ambiguous.
It was only noted by the free software crowd that this is so fairly
late in the game, as a consequence of the Pine license when the Pine
people went nasty and anti-free software.
Thomas
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