RealNetworks' RTSP Proxy License
Joseph Reagle
reagle at w3.org
Fri Sep 7 17:02:58 UTC 2001
On Friday 07 September 2001 12:01, Jeffry Smith wrote:
> A key point that I've found on Open Source - you place the license on
> REDISTRIBUTION, not use. Remember that, under standard Copyright, the
> user has the right to use the software, but not redistribute new or
> modified copies. The Open Source licenses are what enable that. Thus,
> by only specifying redistribution, you can mimic the GPL, and say, in
> effect "You don't have to agree with this license, but nothing else gives
> you the rights included. Use of these rights indicates acceptance of
> this license."
I've noted this distinction between an acceptance of a license
(unilateral?) and contract (bilateral?) before [1]; it's an interesting
(and perhaps) important distinction that I don't completely understand yet.
However, based on this thread I went and had a look and most of the OSI
license *do* restrict use:
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification,
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html
Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mozilla1.0.html
(a) to use, reproduce, modify, display, perform, sublicense and distribute
the Original Code (or portions thereof) with or without Modifications, or
as part of a Larger Work
etc.
[1] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed
it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the
Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you
do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the
Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of
this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying,
distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.
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