Proposal for P2P disclaimer text

Andreas Pour pour at mieterra.com
Sun Mar 14 02:00:01 CET 2004


"Petter E. Stokke" wrote:

[ ... ]

> One worry - might not language this explicit actually interfere with the
> GPL? Other than that, I'd be happy to adopt the full text, it seems to
> cover just about everything.

Hi,

The copyright holders do not have to comply with the GPL - they can release
software under any license they want.  The only question is if it links to
something "pure" GPL which could not link to that (assuming the GPL is
incompatible with such a modified license).  To the extent the program uses LGPL
libs and speaks to GPL daemons through sockets, I don't think there is any GPL
violation.

Also there is the question whether restrictions to legal usage of software would
be GPL-incompatible - as the GPL covers only copying and distribution and not
usage.  Thus you still would not be imposing copying or distribution
restrictions on the software itself other than those already imposed by the GPL.

If you absolutely must have the program be GPL-compatible than you can just make
it into precatory language (i.e., hoped-for behavior but not legally binding
obligations) in the documentation and as a note (rather than an amendment to)
the GPL notice.

Ciao,

Dre


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