Restriction on distribution by Novell?

Matthew Flaschen superm40 at comcast.net
Wed Sep 27 20:25:13 UTC 2006


Philippe Verdy wrote:
> "Fair use" does not exist in international copyright laws, and there's no such concept in the GPL.

That's incorrect.  Berne recognizes quotation rights, which are the same 
thing.  Besides, national laws do recognize it, and thus people can take 
advantage.  The GPL doesn't explicitly recognize fair use, but the 
author of a GPL work (or any other work) can't (successfully) sue 
someone who is only taking advantage of their fair use rights.  Since 
lawsuits are the only enforcement mechanism for the GPL, it can't 
prevent fair use.

Matthew Flaschen



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