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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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