For Approval: Microsoft Permissive License

[Dag-Erling Smørgrav]

"Chris Travers" <chris.travers at gmail.com> writes:
> 1)  Copyright licenses are additive (i.e. one gets the sum of permissions
> from *all* copyright licenses granted to one for a given work)?

Absolutely not.  The baseline is that you have *no* permissions.  This
is why a license is called just that: it is a license to do things
which are normally not permitted under copyright law.

As a consequence, if a piece of software is composed partly of code
released under license A, which grants you permissions X and Y, and
partly of code released under license B, which grants you permissions
Y and Z, the effect as regards the combined work is to grant you
*only* permission Y.  License A's grant of permission X does not
extend to the code that is covered by license B; neither does license
B's grant of permission Y extend to the code that is covered by
license A.

> 2)  Only the copyright owner or his/her agent can grant licenses or issue
> restrictions?

Only the copyright owner or his / her agent can grant additional
licenses.  Anyone redistributing the work (if the original license
allows such redistribution) can issue restrictions unless the original
license forbids it (as the GPL, but not the BSDL, does).

> 3)  Only the copyright owner or his/her agent can enforce violations of
> copyright licenses?

Assuming s/enforce/prosecute/, yes.

DES
-- 
Dag-Erling Smørgrav
Senior Software Developer
Linpro AS - www.linpro.no