Bug#317365: marked as done (..debian policy advice on the GPL etc as licenses or contracts, _should_ be in 2.1 and 12.5, is not.)
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and subject line Bug#317365: ..debian policy advice on the GPL etc as licenses or contracts, _should_ be in 2.1 and 12.5, is not.
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From: Arnt Karlsen <arnt@c2i.net>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: ..debian policy advice on the GPL etc as licenses or contracts,
_should_ be in 2.1 and 12.5, is not.
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Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.6.2.1
Severity: serious
Justification: ..long term litigation hazard.
...subject 'n justification 'n bug#317359 tells the story,
further discussion can be found on Groklaw and likely d-legal
too, the GPL is a license because it gives a permission to do
something, such as distribution, on a certain condition,
"also distribute the source."
...no agreement, "just act on it or Face the Wrath of Copyright Law."
...Microsoft et al likes to confuse the legal issues by calling the
sales or renting contracts for their binaries, "End User License
Agreement". That very "Ok"-click agreement, makes it a contract.
....contracts too can be enforced in court, "because we agreed."
....their long term strategic reason is profit from litigation etc
when they fail to compete on their own merits.
...to succeed in such litigation, license and "license agreement"
confusion is needed, both in the media, in courts and, in the
general public, the members of the legislature and the juries are
drawn from there.
....unless we agree with Microsoft that the GPL is a contract, we should
clarify our position and policy as above, for the KDE guys, it's `just
remove "Agreement" from those tabs, and leave "License" on them tabs',
for other maintainers, there will be similar such wee oversights to fix,
and one such wee oversight is very reason I file this bug. ;o)
...please add relevant advice on "the GPL etc as licenses or contracts under Debian Policy" to sections 2.1 and 12.5 of the Debian Policy Manual.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i586)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.10-1-386
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
-- no debconf information
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Thu, 07 Jul 2005 22:39:55 -0000
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 01:39:55 +0300
From: Don Armstrong <don@debian.org>
To: 317365-done@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#317365: ..debian policy advice on the GPL etc as licenses or contracts, _should_ be in 2.1 and 12.5, is not.
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On Fri, 08 Jul 2005, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
> ....unless we agree with Microsoft that the GPL is a contract, we
> should clarify our position and policy as above, for the KDE guys,
> it's `just remove "Agreement" from those tabs, and leave "License"
> on them tabs', for other maintainers, there will be similar such wee
> oversights to fix, and one such wee oversight is very reason I file
> this bug. ;o)
Whether or not the GPL is a contract or not is dependent upon the
language and actualization of local law. If the license is just a
license under local law, then a license it will remain. If it's a
contract, then it will remain a contract. It is not the place of
Debian Policy to attempt to define the manner in which local law is to
be interpreted.
Thus, this bug report is spurious, and is being summarily closed.
Don Armstrong
--
This space for rent
http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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