BSD-like licenses and the OSI approval process

Matthew Flaschen matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu
Tue Oct 16 11:23:48 UTC 2007


Alexander Terekhov wrote:
>> GPLv3 makes it clear it doesn't remove existing consumer rights (as if
>> any copyright license could do that) by adding "This License
>> acknowledges your rights of fair use or other equivalent, as provided by
>> copyright law."
> 
> The term "fair use" is unique to the United States; a similar
> principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law
> jurisdictions.

Hence the "or other equivalent"....

> But it has really nothing to do with "first sale" (a similar
> principle, "copyright exhaustion" rule, exists in the EU).
> 
> Professor Lee Hollaar (who worked on Internet, copyright, and patent
> issues as a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Fellow) has commented
> regarding GPLv3 wording (and apparently his comments were simply
> dismissed from consideration by RMS Eben & Co.)

Despite the GPLv3 quote I specifically gave?

Matt Flaschen



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