[TriLUG] (repost) Pretty-OT: Question for GPL knowledgeable folks

[Shane O.]

Keep in mind that the FSF folks can share their experience and
interpretation of the GPL language, but that in many cases, there's no right
answer, because no legal precedent has been set.  In my experience, I've
found FSF opinions on GPL licensing questions to be VERY conservative, and
many aspects of their opinions are very quickly argued or dismissed by less
biased attorneys.

But all of that is just attorney jaw-flapping at $120+ an hour...

I've found it helpful to constantly remind myself of a few things around
open source licensing questions:

   - When you get an opinion/advice from someone, consider their
   motivations.
   - Remember who has grounds to contest your usage and application of the
   terms of the GPL -- usually just the copyright holders and recipients of
   your derivative work.
   - And remember that "doing the right thing" goes a long way, so if you
   accidentally screw up some of the mechanics, you'll often find willingness
   to help you get right, versus punishment for not being exact.

And IANAL, so YMMV -

Shane O.

On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 3:34 PM, Joel James Adamson <
joeljamesadamson at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Brian Henning" <lugmail at cheetah.dynip.com> writes:
>
> > My cause for pondering is thus.  If I include the text of the GPL in
> > my port, include prominent credit to the current and past maintainers,
> > and make source code easily available, is the GPL satisfied
>
> AFAIK that would violate the GPLv3.  It might not violate the GPLv2.
>
> In my experience Peter Brown, Richard Stallman and Bradley Kuhn are all
> quite approachable and helpful, so you should probably take your
> question straight to the FSF.  They've helped me a lot with similar
> questions.
>
> > *even though other people that aren't registered XBLIG developers
> > can't make any real use of it at all*?
>
> If they can't legally make use of the code, then that might present some
> problems.  Are you just hoping to provide a game that people can play?
>
> Joel
>
> --
> Joel J. Adamson
> Servedio Lab -- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
> FSF Member #8164 -- http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=8164
> http://www.unc.edu/~adamsonj
>
> Please use my new gmail address: <joeljamesadamson at gmail.com>
>
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