MPL 2 section 11

[John Cowan]

Tzeng, Nigel H. scripsit:

> Heh...here I attempt to summarize a summarization ...

And mine, in turn, was only a summary of what Larry has said at much
greater length.

> 1) You have been granted rights to distribute the source code because it's
> open source.
> 2) Putting these source files in a tarball isn't a derived work but a
> collection of works that you have rights to distribute either via #1 or
> because you wrote it.
> 3) The compiled version of that tarball collection isn't a derived work
> either.
> 4) Therefore anyone can create such a work because of the above chain even
> though the FSF says they believe you cannot. So it is their interpretation
> of what is or isn't a derived work is questioned.

Exactly so.  Thanks for the summary.

> Presumably you still need to provide a copy of the GPL'd source to retain #1
> but not of the other parts of the collection if they do not require
> it...which would result in GPL being a weak copyleft.

Quite, which is why the OSL (which embodies Larry's view) is only a
weak copyleft.

> Whether successfully defending 2 & 3 in court is a pyrrhic victory is
> somewhat debatable.  Certainly the FSF would not like that outcome since it
> would invalidate the concept of strong copyleft.  Few, if anyone, in the
> open source community is likely to actually want this.

As I said, no one wants to be the bad boy who killed the GPL.
It's bad for business.

-- 
John Cowan  cowan at ccil.org  http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove Rudyard Kipling's theory
that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from Polynesia.
        --blurb for Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi