Re: A use case of GPLv3 section 7b

["Giacomo A. Catenazzi" <cate@cateee.net>]

Josselin Mouette wrote:
> Le jeudi 06 septembre 2007 à 00:10 +0200, Francesco Poli a écrit :
> > Hi all,
> > I've just found out a real case where section 7b of GNU GPL v3 is
> > actually used to impose specific restrictions.
> >
> > PySoy[1] is a Python library for 3D game development.
> > It is released under the terms of the GNU GPL v3.
> > Its licensing page[2] states:
> >
> > | Under section 7 of the GPLv3 we require additional terms specific to
> > | the types of software created using PySoy. The term game authors
> > | should be aware of is that the PySoy and GPLv3 logos must be presented
> > | to players in a legible manner and the GPLv3 text be accessible to
> > | players (section 7b).
> > | 
> > [...]
> > | We provide textures for these logos and an easy mechanism to display
> > | the GPLv3 license text as builtin classes so that this is as painless
> > | as possible.
> >
> >
> > Now I wonder: is this restriction really within the bounds of what
> > section 7b allows to impose?
>
> I think the authors have completely misunderstood the purpose of section
> 7. This section doesn't allow to add further restrictions, but to add
> further *permissions*. Like, for example, permitting to link the program
> with a library that requires preservation of reasonable legal notices.

I agree.
"Requiring preservation of specified reasonable"
so is preservation: you cannot add further attributions (but if you
write all the program, and you link to library that allow additional
restrictions.  Anyway it is not compatible with GPLv2 libraries.

But I've the doubt with "reasonable".  I don't think logo are
"reasonable" either because logos have normally additional restrictions
(trademarks, but i think also a GPLv3 logo is not enough for an
"attribution"), and because of the same problems of old BSD license.

ciao
	cate