Moglen's Assertion

[Nick Moffitt]

begin  dlw  quotation:
> I believe Eben Moglen is arguing that the GPL contains what is know
> as a license "covenant"  ---  also known as a "condition precedent"
> to the granting of a copyright license. What this means is that your
> agree to something *BEFORE* you get the license permissions.

	You're early this month, dude.  You usually wait at least a
month before you try dragging this argument out again.  Got a lot of
spare time over the three-day weekend?

	If I say "You may copy my book on a Ramjak brand copier, but
not on a TPC brand copier." then I am giving you conditional
privilege.  I may then add the disclaimer that you don't have to
accept by my terms at all, but I have given you no other permission to
copy my book.  

	There is no acceptance of terms at any point in time.  There
is no Catholic moment of transubstantiation where you suddenly are in
a state of covenant with me.  You simply either look for a Ramjak
machine or decide not to copy my book (or, conversely, decide to
violate my license terms).  The terms are out there, and you can abide
by them or just plain not copy my book.  

-- 
So are you an honest-to-cripes Atkins dieter with the        Nick Moffitt
little urine test strips and the blood analysis and the     nick at zork.net
"better living through diabetes" rhetoric, or are you
just some ranchero wannabe who hates salads?