Re: License question: GPL+Exception

[Ben Finney <bignose+hates-spam@benfinney.id.au>]

"Anthony W. Youngman" <debian@thewolery.demon.co.uk> writes:

> In message <20070513100959.11875F7225@nail.towers.org.uk>, MJ Ray
> <mjr@phonecoop.coop> writes
> >Adding any restrictions to plain GPL results in an invalid licence
> >as in http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2006/05/msg00303.html
>
> I think you're wrong here ... (certainly if the entire grant is by a
> single entity)

By "invalid", I take MJ Ray's meaning as "not a usable license for
recipients of the work".

> Thing is, the licence, as granted by the !copyright holder! is not
> "GPL", but "GPL plus restrictions". The result can't be invalid,
> because it is granted by the copyright holder, and is clear as to
> what is granted.

The result can be a license with contraditory terms, as in this case
(GPL requires no additional restrictions; yet additional restrictions
are required). Since the terms are contradictory, the recipient cannot
simultaneously satisfy all the terms of the license; thus the
recipient has no valid license in the work.

-- 
 \       "All good things are cheap; all bad are very dear."  -- Henry |
  `\                                                     David Thoreau |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney