Re: Debian-approved creative/content license?
On Sun, 11 Mar 2007, Francesco Poli wrote:
> In order to release the audio/video recording in a DFSG-free manner,
> they should release the source as well, as defined in the GNU GPL v2.
>
> Wonderful! That is a feature of the GPL, not a bug!
> Recipients should not be in a position of disadvantage with respect to
> original authors, or otherwise it's not really Free Software.
It's a bug. If the original author puts a video under GPL and doesn't
release the "source", you can't demand it. He's not bound by the GPL since
he can't violate the copyright on his own work, so he has no obligation to
give you anything.
So the result is that you can't demand source and can't distribute the work
either. That doesn't give free software the least bit of benefit.
The problem with "source" for audio or video files is that the source is
much larger and much more awkward to distribute than the final result. It's
plausible that the author doesn't care what you do with his work, but doesn't
want to give you these files simply because it's a lot of trouble. If he
then puts his work under GPL, he may not even realize that he's given you
no permission to redistribute at all.
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