Question about the GPL v3

[Chris Travers]

Matthew Flaschen wrote:
> Chris Travers wrote:
>   
>> So, the general concensus here seems to be that if one has an
>> interactive but limited user interface not suited for displaying legal
>> notices, then one cannot use GPL v3 code.
>>     
>
> If it's actually impossible to display the legal notices, then I would
> say it's not really an interactive interface.  If it's only
> inconvenient, that's okay because the notice need only be displayed when
> the user selects the option for this ("If the interface presents a list
> of user commands or options, such as a menu, a prominent item in the
> list meets this criterion.")
>   
Part of the problem is that the GPL v3, section 0 requires that 
"Appropriate Legal Notices" must be convenient from the perspective of 
the user.  The second problem is limited UI's can certainly be 
interactive in the sense of interacting with the user (is there another 
definition of "interactive" that I should know about?).

I suppose one option for the POS app might be: by default display the 
copyright notice, wait for user input, and then go to the rest of the 
application, but provide a way to start the application without the 
notice (command-line switch that tells it to bypass this).  This way 
everyone will generally start the application without the notice, but it 
takes more work than to actually see the notice, and newbies who don't 
read the docs will almost certainly see the notice.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers
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