SOS license

Bruce Perens bruce at perens.com
Wed Nov 10 20:28:12 UTC 1999


From: Alex Nicolaou <anicolao at cgl.uwaterloo.ca>
> So, if I start with gdb, which prints such a notice, and publish a patch
> under terms that indicate that every end user must pay for the patched
> version, I have generated a useless patch. Either the user isn't allowed
> to modify the program with my patch under the terms of the license,
> because my patch changes the start-up banner of gdb to indicate that it
> is non-free, or the user isn't allowed to apply my patch since they
> cannot do so and still follow my license that says that all users must
> pay me for the patch.

There's a third alternative. You are allowed to distribute the patch, and
people are allowed to apply it, but they aren't allowed to distribute the
result beyond hteir own system.

Yes, there are ways to break the GPL. Unfortunately, you aren't fixing any
of them.

	Thanks

	Bruce



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