Re: [PROPOSAL] Full text of GPL must be included
Brian Frederick Kimball <bfk@footbag.org> wrote:
> Making the GPL available in a separate file that may or may not be
> received by the recipient of the GPLed Program does not constitute
> "giving" the GPL to the recipients of such a program "along with the
> Program". Is Debian giving the License along with the Program to
> someone who runs wget http://http.us.debian.org/path/to/GPLed/deb on a
> RedHat system? I don't think so.
Spurious argument. You are confusing "giving" with "taking". We "give"
the entire world our distribution. What the user "takes" from us is a
different matter.
By your argument, we would have to include a copy of the GPL within
every source file of a copy-lefted project, since someone might grab one
file (or directory) out of the source tree and use it as part of a
derived work. He only grabbed the one file (or directory) and therefore
did not get a copy of the GPL. Nevertheless, the GPL was available in a
separate file as part of the complete work.
As it stands, the GPL does not define what comprises a work. It
establishes no boundaries. Therefore, Debian can claim that the
distribution (or at least the essential parts of it, without which the
distribution will not work) *is* our work. One copy of the GPL will
suffice. We have met the standard of the license, and have given the
user a copy of the GPL as part of our work.
- Brian
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