[Fwd: FW: For Approval: Generic Attribution Provision]

[David Woolley]

> Yes, from the FSF's perspective, all of their restrictions are actually
> granting permissions/freedom to someone.  Obviously, this has been
> controversial...

I think you are missing the point.

Whilst it is true that the pure licence concept can only give permissions,
and the FS rely on making those additional permissions conditional, the
base GPL does not grant those permissions when there is a patent 
conflict.  Section 8 then allows a distributor of new code which has
a patent conflict to grant additional permissions without conflicting
with the GPL.  The fact that the list of countries is specified in terms
of the universal set minus problem countries is a minor detail,
although one that is very practical, as it allows newly formed countries
to use the software without a new licence being issued.

There is some controversy as to whether the negative terms of the GPL
require a formal contract, but I don't see that there is any reasonable
way that one can interpret the section 8 rules as being an additional
restriction in this sense.