On Wed, Mar 05, 2003 at 11:55:07AM -0600, John Goerzen wrote: > > I personally favor strict interpretation of licenses, with some > > cognizance of historical precedent, and a liberal interpretation of the > > DFSG, such that it can be read broadly to exclude licenses. I think > > this is a far better approach for preserving users' freedom than the > > converse -- and preserving users' freedom is in fact the explicit > > purpose of the DFSG. > > I agree with you, but I'm not sure you are encouraging a strict > interpretation of the GPL in some of your other messages :-) Peple can and do apply the GNU GPL to things that aren't software (you've done so yourself, I think ;-) ). Under such circumstances, we can reasonably believe the copyright holder's intent to be DFSG-free, and I think it makes more sense to do the best we can to interpret the GNU GPL in the non-software context, rather than reject the license entirely and tell the author to try again. So, yeah, I'm a strict constructionist when it comes to licenses, but I try not to be an idiot[1] about it. :) Where the underlying intent is pro-freedom I'm willing to indulge in some flexibility, because it rewards the copyright holder for doing a noble thing by contributing to the creative commons, and the commons is this enriched for the benefit of our users. I do not think it is insignificant that non-software cannot have (2)(c) problems. > Of course, we need to beware that the historical precedent that > counts, when it comes to determining what exactly a license permits, > is case law and not online discussions. Where such case law actually exists, yes, we need to take it into account. As far as I know, most Free Software licenses have not been the object of court battles. Even the AT&T/Berkeley fight didn't result in a precedent, because it was settled out of court. [1] HELLO, JUSTICES REHNQUIST, SCALIA, AND THOMAS -- G. Branden Robinson | The greatest productive force is Debian GNU/Linux | human selfishness. branden@debian.org | -- Robert Heinlein http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
Attachment:
pgp6rXbF6KGFt.pgp
Description: PGP signature