<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/21/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Nils Labugt</b> <<a href="mailto:elabu@online.no">elabu@online.no</a>> wrote:</span><div><br> </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
The following seems clear enough to me:</blockquote><div><br>Yes, but see below why this does not solve the disagreement particularly over GPL v3 compatibility. I don't think that the disagreement is in a reading of this license, but rather a reading of other licenses. and copyright law in general.
<br> <br></div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">fre, 10.08.2007 kl. 09.16 -0700, skrev Jon Rosenberg (PBM):<br>> · Can MS-PL code be redistributed under a different license?:
<br>><br>> No. The license states that "If you distribute any portion of the<br>> software in source code form, you may do so only under this license…"<br>> This restriction is similar to the restriction in the Mozilla Public
<br>> License that states "You may not offer or impose any terms on any<br>> Source Code version that alters or restricts the applicable version of<br>> this License or the recipients' rights hereunder." The MS-PL license
<br>> explicitly prohibits relicensing of the original licensed code under a<br>> different license, regardless of whether the original code is<br>> redistributed in whole, in part or as part of a different piece of
<br>> software.</blockquote><div><br><br>I don't think anyone is actually arguing over this point. The points are generally related to questions outside the scope of the license itself. These arguments seem perpetual here such as whether the BSDL *really* gives you the right to impose additional restrictions on code you distribute (I say it doesn't). IANAL, however.
<br><br>Whatever disagreements I have with the FSF, it seems that we do agree on the question of what the GPL requires in this case. It seems to only require that components used under other licenses grant the set of copyright permissions (not necessarily restrictions). In other words, the standard seems to be the question of whether there is anything that you are given permission to do under the GPL that you are not given permission to do under the other license. In this view, the GPL amounts to a set of permissions to excersize certain rights otherwise restricted to the copyright owner and would be additive to additional permissions in the absence of contracts waiving such rights (for example, in exchange for support, services, warranties, etc). While this view poses some really interesting problems for another related license, the AGPL current discussion draft,
<br></div><br>In this view nothing prevents a content author from granting additional permissions beyond the scope of the GPL for his/her work nor do additional permissions cause problems for the GPL. However, the additional permissions would be limited to the original elements (at least in the US) of the Author's work and derivatives thereof. I would think the UK standard of "sweat of the brow" would have a similar (and possibly even broader) effect relating to additional permissions.
<br><br>I therefore suggest that the question of the above condition does not by itself pose a GPL compatibility issue unless the license fails to grant some permissions granted by the GPL. The only possible problem I see here relates to definition conflict and whether something not considered a derivative work here in the US but considered as such, for example, in the UK might be altogether banned under this license (excluding additional permissions) but allowed under the GPL. However, I am not sure that the GPL requires that one accomodate copyright laws elsewhere in the world for downstream distribution outside of the limited question of copyright owners of portions of the corresponding source. (
i.e. if nobody from a given country owns copyrights to corresponding source and that country has additional restrictions which prevent people in that country from meeting the terms of the GPL when distributing, I don't see why you would have to accomodate those local regulations.) Thus, for a US developer, I don't see any problems unless I start using code written by people in other countries.
<br><br>Best Wishes,<br>Chris Travers<br></div>