The regrettable use of "all" in Section 7 of the GPL

[Ruth A. Kramer]

jcowan at reutershealth.com wrote:
> But the GPL does say:  if one person cannot receive and redistribute, no one
> can, at least within a single country.

I didn't see anyone else respond to this -- did I miss something?

Is this your reference? (from Version 2, June 1991)

<quote>
8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may
add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those
countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries
not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the
limitation as if written in the body of this License. 
</quote>

I guess it could be interpreted as you say, but really it seems like
your statement almost reverses the meaning.  If one person in a country
cannot receive and distribute for some reason other than "by patents or
by copyrighted interfaces" (say because they are restricted as a felon),
there does not appear to be a restriction on anyone else in that
country.  Am I missing something?

Randy Kramer
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