Re: Bug#317359: kde: ..3'rd "Help"->"About $KDE-app" tab calls the GPL "License Agreement", ie; a contract.

[Glenn Maynard <glenn@zewt.org>]

On Wed, Jul 13, 2005 at 03:14:22PM -0700, Adam McKenna wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 08:31:37PM -0700, Sean Kellogg wrote:
> > When you download something from the deb archives, you create a copy.  That 
> > copy is not permitted under the copyright act unless you have permission from 
> > the owner.  If that's not the way you read 106(1), then downloading 
> > copyrighted mp3s off napster was legal...  and I suggest to you it was not.
> 
> Sorry, but this analogy does not hold water.  Debian has a license to
> distribute the packages in its archives.  Most of the people using Napster
> didn't.  This is an important distinction.

I think what he's saying is roughly: 1: if A has no license to distribute
the software, puts it on a server, and B downloads it, why is B guilty of
copyright infringement if it's A who lacked a license to distribute; or
2: why is B *not* guilty of copyright infringement if A has a license to
distribute but B does not?"

#1 is "why is the Napster downloader guilty"; I don't have an answer to that
(though I believe that's only due to my poor understanding of copyright law,
and not evidence supporting Sean's argument).  The sender might, after all,
have had a license to redistribute.

Michael answered #2.

-- 
Glenn Maynard