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Re: Is AGPLv3 DFSG-free?



On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:25:52 -0400 Jeff Licquia wrote:

> Francesco Poli wrote:
> > Am I failing to comply with the license?
> 
> The only person who could say for sure would be a judge.

Obviously, but we are trying to understand the effects of license
terms, hence we have to try and understand what a judge would decide...

> 
> But, in general, it's worth noting that the law is not as robotic as 
> this.  We could imagine all kinds of scenarios that could be construed 
> as violations of all kinds of licenses.  Does the GPL prevent you from 
> moving if you've made a written offer and can't have your mail forwarded 
> for the full three years?

I think you chose the wrong example: the written offer possibility
(clause 3b in GPLv2, clause 6b in GPLv3) is a non-free path through the
GPL.
In other words, if making the written offer were the *only* way to
distribute GPL'd object code, the GPL would *not* meet the DFSG.
This is my own opinion, but it seems to be shared by other debian-legal
regulars: see, for instance
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/07/msg00595.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/07/msg00600.html


As usual: IANAL, TINLA, IANADD, TINASOTODP.

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..................................................... Francesco Poli .
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