Re: [PROPOSAL] Full text of GPL must be included
Aaron Lehmann <aaronl@vitelus.com> writes:
> Since when does intention have anything to do with breaking the law?
> Negligence is also a crime. The FSF is violating the GPL when they
> make binaries such as /bin/ls downloadable without the downloading of
> the GPL. Negligence is no excuse.
Nothing here is criminal. Intent is a great deal in law. Among other
things, any crime includes the element of criminal intent.
The issue isn't whether you "make something downloadable"; it's
whether you distribute it. Distributing on the net involves several
things, not just making it downloadable, but also advertising it,
saying "we are distributing it", and your intent to distribute. These
are the sorts of things that also have to be involved for something to
count as distributing.
Nothing is helped by jacking up rhetoric, so tossing words like
"crime" and "negligence" into this only serve to get people angrier at
each other, for no value--people who should be friends.
Thomas
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