Re: Derivatives forced to have the same license
Matthew Kloth <musedfable@gmail.com> writes:
> Is it legally possible to create a copyleft license that automatically
> forces all derivatives to have the same license?
What work is being proposed for inclusion in Debian? Hypotheticals are
rarely helpful in the absence of a concrete work so that its specific
issues can be discussed.
First, the force doesn't come from the license; a license *permits*
actions that are otherwise restricted by copyright law.
The restrictive force comes from copyright law, so it makes no sense to
talk of a license “forcing” someone to do anything.
Second, would it be acceptable that you permit redistribution under
license terms that are different, but *no more restrictive than* the
license terms you grant? If so, that's entailed within the general
meaning of a copyleft license.
> It would be an art license, not a software license, if that makes any
> difference.
I think it doesn't; there is no clear line between programs and art, and
depending on such a distinction for legal difference is a fool's game.
They're all software (digitally-encoded information), even if the FSF
disagrees with that usage.
The GPL is fine for applying to any digital work, in my opinion.
> I know the GPL is often accused of doing this, but I was wondering if
> it was actually legally possible.
What you may be referring to is the entire purpose of copyleft: to
permit redistribution, provided the redistribution terms apply no
additional restrictions on any recipient.
The GPL is a copyleft license, as is the CC-By-SA license. They both
specify that you must grant all recipients all the terms in the license;
but they also allow licensing under “compatible” terms, which means you
can also grant the recipient additional permissions.
Unfortunately, the GPL and CC-By-SA are not compatible with each other,
which means a work combining both sets of license terms would need to
make very clear what terms apply and how the incompatibility is
resolved.
It's for that reason that I strongly recommend you license the entire
work as free software, under a single well-understood license.
--
\ “I was in a bar the other night, hopping from barstool to |
`\ barstool, trying to get lucky, but there wasn't any gum under |
_o__) any of them.” —Emo Philips |
Ben Finney
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