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Re: Bug#221709: ITP: at76c503a-source -- at76c503a driver source



Scripsit Joachim Breitner <nomeata@debian.org>

> Well, doesn't Atmel promise by distributing the .hex files under the GPL
> to either "Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
> source code" or "Accompany it with a written offer,

No. They are the copyright holder, so they can always do whatever they
want. Slapping GPL on a work is a grant *from* the copyright holder
*to* everyone else which allows everyone else to distribute and modify
under certain conditions. Everyone else needs to follow those
conditions, because otherwise we won't have any permission to
distribute. But the copyright holder has permission to distribute *by
default* and does not need a license from himself to do so to do so.

> So I guess we should just get a lawyer to make Atmel hand out the
> source code :-)

Won't work. In most jurisdictions, the only one who can file suits
alleging non-compliance with copyright licenses is the copyright
holder himself, or his legal delegate.

-- 
Henning Makholm                         "This imposes the restriction on any
                                  procedure statement that the kind and type
                             of each actual parameter be compatible with the
                       kind and type of the corresponding formal parameter."



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