Messages in this thread | | | From | "Adam J. Richter" <> | Date | Fri, 25 May 2001 19:34:57 -0700 | Subject | Re: Fwd: Copyright infringement in linux/drivers/usb/serial/keyspan*fw.h |
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Larry McVoy writes: >On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 10:02:08AM -0700, Adam J. Richter wrote: >> If you want to argue that a court will use a different definition >> of aggregation, then please explain why and quote that definition. Also, >> it's important not to forget the word "mere." If the combination is anything >> *more* than aggregration, then it's not _merely_ aggregation. So, >> if you wanted to argue from the definition on webster.com:
>Adam, the point is not what the GPL says or what the definition is. >The point is "what is legal". You can, for example, write a license >which says
> By running the software covered by this license, you agree to > become my personal slave and you will be obligated to bring > me coffee each morning for the rest of my life, greating > me with a "Good morning, master, here is your coffee oh > most magnificent one".
>If anyone is stupid enough to obey such a license, they need help. >The problem is that licenses can write whatever they want, but what they >say only has meaning if it is enforceable. The "license" above would >be found to be unenforceable by the courts in about 30 seconds or so.
Contracts for slavery are specifically not enforceable due to the 13th Amendment, and there is also a stronger question of formation of a binding contract in your example, because the proposed mode of acceptance (related to the pointers I provided before) is doing something that you might have the right to do regardless of copyright (running the program as opposed to distributing copies). I believe that people write contracts all the time that prohibit distribution of certain works with others, for marketing reasons.
>OK, so what does this have to do with aggregration? The prevailing >legal opinions seem to be that viral licenses cannot extend their >terms across boundaries.
We're not talking about mythically changing the copyright status of another work. If your opinion is "prevailing" please include a reference to a section of the US code, a court decision or some reference that one could actually track down.
By the way, I have asked a lawyer at an IP litigation firm that we use about this and he indicated the copyright infringement case was quite strong.
Adam J. Richter __ ______________ 4880 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 104 adam@yggdrasil.com \ / San Jose, California 95129-1034 +1 408 261-6630 | g g d r a s i l United States of America fax +1 408 261-6631 "Free Software For The Rest Of Us." - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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