Re: DRAFT: debian-legal summary of the QPL

[Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu>]

Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 22, 2004 at 12:56:50AM -0400, Walter Landry wrote:
> > Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> > > Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> > > >Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> > > >> Under the GPL, the government can just pass a law requiring that all
> > > >> distributed source code be provided to the government.
> 
> > > >Except that there are no such governments.  Get back to me when that
> > > >actually happens.
> 
> > > If there were such a government, would you question the GPL's freedom?
> 
> > In that country, it would not be free.
> 
> I disagree.  This is not relevant to the freedom of the license, because
> it's an additional restriction imposed by a *third party* (in this case,
> a government), and not something that can be fixed by additional
> permission grants from the licensor.
> 
> Free software licensing presupposes that the copyright holder has the
> ability to grant you certain freedoms over the code.  When this is not
> the case due to outside forces (e.g., patent holders or averse
> governments), we should not view this as a flaw in the license if this
> license gives us the *author's* permission to exercise those freedoms
> with the code.

If I can't modify and distribute the software, how can you call the
software free?  This is not like patents or other usual suspects
(e.g. govt regulations on crypto), which depend on the contents of the
software.  Rather it flows directly from the license and its
interaction with the law.  The author can make the software free by
using a BSD license.

As another example, what if there were a jurisdiction where recipients
automatically receive the right to modify and distribute unless
otherwise explicitly specified.  Then a simple "Copyright (C) 2000
Steve Langasek" would be free.

I agree that these examples are rather outlandish, which is why I
don't worry about it as a practical matter.

Regards,
Walter Landry
wlandry@ucsd.edu