Re: DRAFT: debian-legal summary of the QPL
On Tue, Jul 13, 2004 at 11:48:10PM +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> The restriction in the GPL takes away *my* "right" to not have to share
> modifications; the restriction in the QPL prevents me taking away the
> rights of the copyright holder to see my modifications. You're not
> providing arguments for why one of these viewpoints is better than the
> other. I'm especially unconvinced that my right to privacy is stronger
> than the right of everyone to enjoy my modifications.
1) Such private modifications might not be legal to distribute. As
a researcher at a university, I made several modifications to GPL
projects that incorporated code or use of libraries that are not
distributable at all. Of course, these have never seen the light
of day outside of that research group.
2) There's no definition of the granularity of modifications. Must
I send a patch every time I modify a file? At the end of every day?
For someone who may need to clear patches through a legal department,
this may be a significant burden.
3) (related to 1) I may have other legal obligations (such as an NDA)
which do not allow me to distribute my own modifications that are
otherwise OK to distribute.
Of course, once a patch is made public, these arguments don't apply.
dave...
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