Re: Is the University of Edinburgh clickwrap GPL DFSG-free?
On Thursday 02 November 2006 23:11, Don Armstrong wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Nov 2006, Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho wrote:
> > Is the following license, displayed as a precondition for
> > downloading the software, DFSG-free? (Specifically, are there any
> > traps in it that I am not seeing?)
>
> Since (or assuming) it actually is GPLed, you can totally ignore the
> clickwrap. Simply arrange[1] to have the code distributed to you
> simply under the terms of the GPL. [If it's not possible to ignore the
> clickwrap entirely, then it's not actually GPLed.]
I don't see how you arrive at this conclusion. He's not asking if the
software is GPLed, he's asking if it is DFSG-free. There is quite a bit of
debate in the legal world as to whether the GPL is a license one "agrees" to
or simple a permission statement that you can recognize or ignore, with the
understanding that if you ignore it you have no right to the underlying code.
Now, the fine folks at Edinburgh have gone one step further. They have
licensed their code under the terms of the GPL + some extra verbage on
warranty disclaimer and liability waivers. If you'd like to make the claim
that such disclaimers/waivers are in violation of the GPL or the DFSG, then
I'd be very interested to read them.
Otherwise, I don't see how requiring the affirmative recognition itself (via
the click-wrap) is non-free.
-Sean
--
Sean Kellogg
e: skellogg@gmail.com
w: http://blog.probonogeek.org/
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