For Approval: Microsoft Permissive License

[Chris Travers]

Matthew Flaschen wrote:
> Chris Fagan wrote:
>   
>> A design goal of the MS-PL is to allow developers to choose to ensure
>> that the specific rights in Section (2) continue to be available to
>> downstream developers and users through generations of adoption and
>> adaptation.
>>     
>
> The phrase "the specific rights [...] continue to be available to [...]
> users through  generations of adoption and adaptation" reminds me of
> "anyone who redistributes the software, with or without changes, must
> pass along the freedom to further copy and change it."
>   
Ths winds us back around to the question of "if I include your BSDL code 
in my GPL application, does that code, provided it is unaltered stop 
being under the BSDL?"

All of us non-lawyers never seem to be able to agree on this.  So far, 
the lawyers I have heard seem to think that the answer is no, but this 
is secondhand, and I may have misunderstood...

This isn't a matter of interpreting this license.  It is a lot of us 
trying to understand what the license means in the greater context of 
copyright law.  I am afraid we probably need lawyers to answer these 
questions.


Best Wishes,
Chris Travers
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