[TriLUG] cdrecord

[Jeremy Portzer]

On Tue, 2003-04-08 at 16:43, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-04-08 at 16:28, Jeremy Portzer wrote:
> 
> > The question I guess is whether the terms listed in the code comment are
> > considered a modification to the license or not.  I don't think you're
> > really allowed to modify the GPL itself.  The GPL does allow you to
> > limit geographical redistribution in section (8), but I don't see any
> > other provisions that allow you to adjust how it works, other than a
> > court order.
> 
> You are allowed to modify the GPL and release your work under that
> modified license if you want to.

Okay, good point, but cdrecord is released with an unmodified GPL and
then that implicit "license modification" in the source code.  I'd think
that since the actual license doesn't say "implicit license
modifications in the code are allowed" -- then they aren't.  Hmm.

> Take, for example, the Linux
> Kernel.  It is GPL with an exemption for binary modules.  While some
> may argue that it's not strictly GPL then, try convincing all the
> people that say it is GPL. :-)
> 
> I also happen to think that if you get into a position where you
> have to start talking about getting a "court order" to respect the
> author's wishes, something has seriously gone wrong. :-(
 
Well, I agree that the subject of this discussion really ought never end
up the court order territory.  But I do think it's fair to point out the
implications of the GPL.  Authors do lose quite a bit of control over
their code by using the GPL; if you really want more power over the code
than GPL is not the right license for you.

--Jeremy

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| Jeremy Portzer       jeremyp at pobox.com       trilug.org/~jeremy     |
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