[sword-devel] Still more about licencing

[Hastings]

At 01:39 PM 12/10/2003, Lynn Allan wrote:
>Is anybody else noticing that we are getting what seems to be contradictory
>information about the GPL license?
>
>Step 1: You can.
>Step 2: No, you can't.
>Step 3. Yes, you can.
>Step 4. Go-To Step 2.

You get the same kind of responses from people talking about copyright law 
in other contexts.

>...I have never been a fan of the GPL. I am a
>strong believer in copyright, intellectual property, and property rights. I
>believe the USA founding fathers knew what they were doing when they
>established the Copyright Office. Was it specified in the Constitution?

GPL works are copyrighted. GPL is a license which does nothing against 
copyrights. If you have heard anything contrary to that, you have heard 
false rumors.

>I tend to feel the net result of Richard Stallman's well intended "copyleft"
>is anti-intellectual.

Really? What can you learn from the source code for Windows? Probably 
nothing, unless you are one of the few that are allowed to see it, or you 
decide to violate their license and reverse engineer it.

>While we remain on "this side", our fallen natures seems to call for
>copyright rather than copyleft.

No one is taking copyright away. In fact it gets stronger all the time. 
Copyleft is not "rather than" it is in addition to. Again, all copyleft 
works are copyrighted. Copyright is the law giving the copyright holder the 
power to restricted copying. Copyleft, is the copyright holder granting 
license to others to use and copy under certain conditions the copyright 
law would otherwise not grant. There is nothing special about that, all 
licenses work that way.

>I would probably prefer to release LcdBible and the InVerse Scripture
>memorization freeware to the Public Domain than use the GPL as it seems to
>be understood on The SWORD Project.

I am a big fan of the PD. There are still problems though. You realize that 
you won't be able to use any copyrighted code, GPL or otherwise, without 
getting the needed permission to release them to the PD. You also still 
won't be able to combine or distribute your code with copyrighted 
libraries, GPL or otherwise, or other kinds of copyrighted works, unless 
you get the needed permissions to do so. And "personal use" is not always a 
defence against copyright violation claims.

Jerry