Redistribution vs use

bruce at perens.com bruce at perens.com
Thu Sep 2 23:31:27 UTC 1999


From: John Cowan <cowan at locke.ccil.org>
> Copyright licenses can't constrain use, because use is not one of the
> rights that copyright law constrains.

This is a drastic oversimplification. Licenses are also contracts.
By executing a license you can contract to give up some rights in exchange
for being granted other rights. You can not read _any_ of these licenses
solely in the context of copyright law, every one of them, even the GPL,
exceeds the scope of copyright law and makes use of contract law as well.

> Nobody knows. *If* this use is a redistribution, then if the
> software is licensed under the GPL or LGPL he may have to offer
> the source code of his modifications to the users.

There is certainly _copying_ involved in the act of transferring a Java
applet from a web site to the client. I'd consider it distribution.

	Thanks

	Bruce



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