Wired Article on the GPL
Justin Wells
jread at semiotek.com
Thu Mar 30 22:52:37 UTC 2000
On Thu, Mar 30, 2000 at 04:39:10PM -0500, John Cowan wrote:
> Remember that we are talking about the GPL here, not some random proprietary
> license. The GPL grants you permissions to take certain actions provided you
> meet certain conditions. The actions are copying, distributing, and
> making derivative works. You neither accept nor reject the GPL; it grants
> you permissions whether you want them or not.
>
> If the copyright owner revokes the permissions, you are probably out of luck.
If this is true, it's awful. That means that I can release some software
for "free" under the GPL, wait until everyone is using it, and then
suddenly say "Hey guys, guess what? I feel like getting rich--please
all send me $5000 or stop using my software. I revoke the GPL."
That CAN'T be right. If it is right, we need a quick revision to the
GPL to fix this problem.
Justin
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