Licensing and public performance

[Andrew J Bromage]

G'day all.

On Mon, Apr 03, 2000 at 05:53:20PM -0700, Seth David Schoen wrote:

> There have been some rumors that version 3 of the GNU GPL may require
> disclosure of source code in some cases of public performance.

I have also heard these rumours.  I believe that this is intended to
deal with server-based applications.

> I am not sure whether or not the situation you describe counts as
> public performance.

Nor am I.  I suspect that it would depend on how much the software is
used in the work, and what role it plays.  For example, if you produce
a recording of some synthesised music on recorded onto a writable CD,
I would guess that the final work may count as a public performance of
the synthesis software but most likely not of the CD recording software.

> The OSD has no particular comment on this, although many people have
> felt that it is inappropriate to use a license to violate the privacy
> of the users of some software package.

There may be media-creation software "out there" whose licences require
that works created using the software include a credit.  Could anyone
who uses such software please take a look at their licences to see if
they do?

Mind you, that might be based on shrinkwrap agreements rather than
appealing to "public performance".

As for the OSD's comment, I was worried that it might be discriminatory
against fields of endeavour: those producing media for distribution
with this software have to redistribute the software, but others do not.
That looks too much like "commercial users must redistribute the source
but non-commercial users don't have to".

Cheers,
Andrew Bromage