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Re: European Directive on Copyright Law (91/EC/250) wrt open source



For those not wanting a version in Microsoft Word with (?)Estonian, this directive's text is also available in English HTML at http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=31991L0250&model=guichett

Other languages can be found by using the number 31991L0250 on EUR-Lex via http://europa.eu.int/

On 2004-05-02 13:07:38 +0100 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl@lkcl.net> wrote:

where such libraries could be construed to have "interfaces", and
where the GPL is used to force a monopoly position, then any company

GPL cannot force a monopoly (in the meaning of EU Competition Law), can it? Monopolies are dominant businesses, not dominant literary works. I'm sure we've had EU-GPL-FUD because people misunderstood that before.

or open source project with an incompatible license is entitled to
request a compatible license and if they do not receive one they
are entitled to treat the "interface" - i.e. the header files and
effectively the entire library - as not being subject to copyright
law!

Can you tell me what part of the directive actually says that, or which you are basing this conclusion on, please? I did not find it at a first inspection. I did see there are limited rights to decompilation and I'm not sure whether a GPL-covered work would be classed as not "readily available" thereby qualifying for that section.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give,

--
MJR/slef
My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know.
http://mjr.towers.org.uk/
http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ for creative copyleft computing



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