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[ox-en] Re: Keyword: Free Software Licences



Hi Jo?ão Miguel and list!

Thanks for pointing the following out. Please see the question below.

@Michel: Thanks for asking long enough so even I understood it ;-) .

8 months (264 days) ago Jo?ão Miguel Neves wrote:
Just the usual note: Licenses aren't contracts:

1) You don't have to agree to them.

2) The restrictions are imposed by copyright law.

3) The license can not impose restrictions not in the law. It can only
reduce the restrictions as defined by the law.

4) The correct term is a copyright authorization (at least in Portugal
and I've been told that in France and Germany it's the same).

8 months (263 days) ago Jo?ão Miguel Neves wrote:
1) A license can't impose restrictions not on copyright law.

2) You don't need a contract to impose limitations on reproduction of a
work - copyright law and international treaties do it: check article 9
of the Berne Convention, for an example:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html (the
authorization refered to is a right of the author, there's no need for
an agreement with anyone else)

3) For imposing restrictions other than those of copyright law, you need
a contract. And for a contract to be legally binding, whoever is bound
by it, must agree to it (you can't been drawn into a contract you have
not agreed to).

4) GPL and CC are licenses that explicitely exercise the rights of
authorization given by copyright laws in a way that remove the
limitations provided by the default behavior of copyright law.

"The essence of copyright law, like other systems of property rules, is
the power to exclude. The copyright holder is legally empowered to
exclude all others from copying, distributing, and making derivative
works.

This right to exclude implies an equally large power to license--that
is, to grant permission to do what would otherwise be forbidden.
Licenses are not contracts: the work's user is obliged to remain within
the bounds of the license not because she voluntarily promised, but
because she doesn't have any right to act at all except as the license
permits." - Eben Moglen (one of the creators of the GPLv2) in Enforcing
the GPL - http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/lu-12.html
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/lu-13.html

8 months (261 days) ago Jo?ão Miguel Neves wrote:
Almost there, except that you don't have to agree to a license. If you
want to use a citation, for instance, the law allows you that. If
there's a license or not doesn't affect you. If you do something that
only the author can do/authorize (ex: reproduction or publication) then
you need a license. It's up to the author to give you the license under
his/hers terms. No one asks for your agreement. It's solely a right of
the author. What he decides, he can do. No agreement from you is needed.

I always thought that you need to agree to the license to be allowed
to exercise the rights the license grants to you.

But as you put it it's the other way around: If you don't like the
license and thus not agree to it you have no rights at all. Is this
correct?

But why then the GPL governs what happens if you don't follow the
license (i.e. don't comply / agree with it). Especially the GPLv3
doesn't revoke all rights immediately but offers means to "heal"
non-compliance. Isn't that beyond copyright (and thus a contract)?

Sex, 2007-04-27 ?às 17:52 [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED], Stefan Merten escreveu:
Keyword: Free Software Licences
===============================

* Licenses are contracts

I did not change the respective point yet. As of now it is:

 * Licenses are contracts

   * Govern under which conditions someone may do something with the
     software

     Proprietary software also uses licenses

   * Especially: Use, modify, distribute

   * Software licenses are based on copyright

     Copyright is based on state power

Is something like this more correct (replaced lines are marked with a
``!``):

! * Licenses express the rights of the copyright holder

    * Govern under which conditions someone may do something with the
      software

      Proprietary software also uses licenses

    * Especially: Use, modify, distribute

    * Software licenses are based on copyright

      Copyright is based on state power

!   * Rights or restrictions beyond copyright need contracts


						Gr?ü?ße

						Stefan

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