The Copyright Act preempts the GPL

[Peterson, Scott K (HP Legal)]

"In that case, please give an example of what you do consider an
affirmative right."

For example, 
- rights that are enumerated in the Bill of Rights, such as relating to
free speech;
- various rights relating to ownership of physical property.

-- Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: jcowan at reutershealth.com [mailto:jcowan at reutershealth.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2004 10:34 AM
To: Peterson, Scott K (HP Legal)
Cc: license-discuss at opensource.org
Subject: Re: The Copyright Act preempts the GPL


Peterson, Scott K (HP Legal) scripsit:

> If, when impeded in some way from undertaking one of the actions 
> exclusive to the copyright holder, a copyright holder could go to 
> court and use the copyright rights to overcome the impediment - that 
> would be an exercise of an affirmative right.

In that case, please give an example of what you do consider an
affirmative right.

> As I am not aware of an example of a copyright holder exercising a 
> right in such a way, I continue to find it most helpful to think of 
> copyright as a negative right.

No one can quarrel with what it is that you find most helpful.

-- 
John Cowan                                   jcowan at reutershealth.com
        "You need a change: try Canada"  "You need a change: try China"
                --fortune cookies opened by a couple that I know
--
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