Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux | Date | Thu, 24 Dec 1998 14:06:32 -0500 | From | "Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH" <> |
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In message <Pine.LNX.3.96.981223114744.530B-100000@red.prv>, "Mike A. Harris" w rites: +----- | On Sun, 20 Dec 1998 ralf@uni-koblenz.de wrote: | >> license. If that means that they can't do something that they'd | >> like to... tough cookies. GPL is GPL for good reason. To | >> prevent commercial exploitation of GPL source code | > | >No. The GPL was designed to restrict the right to restrict rights. | | You're perfectly entitled to that opinion Ralf. The GPL was not | designed for that purpose at all however as you well know. | Perhaps some people see "restricted rights", but then again, | people see whatever they want to see in anything nowadays... +--->8
I think the double negative triggered a bug in your parser. :-) Quoting from the GNU General Public License, version 2:
:: To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid :: anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. :: These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you :: distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
This is indeed "designed to restrict your right to restrict rights" --- with respect to the GPL. (It does not prohibit, and indeed can't prohibit, someone releasing their own code under both the GPL and a more restrictive license, but that is a different issue entirely.)
As for why this might indeed be seen as restrictive (aside from the obvious restrictions which the GPL is specifically intended to deny): it is my understanding that the BSD license is incompatible with the GPL in part because it restricts the right to use the name of UC Berkeley in advertizing. If true, this is decidedly strange and somewhat disconcerting --- it implies that there are other surprises lurking wherever the GPL intersects with another license.
-- brandon s. allbery [os/2][linux][solaris][japh] allbery@kf8nh.apk.net system administrator [WAY too many hats] allbery@ece.cmu.edu carnegie mellon / electrical and computer engineering KF8NH We are Linux. Resistance is an indication that you missed the point.
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