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Re: KDE in hamm - let's have a vote



Philip Hands wrote:
  >> Raul, you are still confusing two issues:
  >> 
  >> 1. A developer writes code that uses Motif/Qt/whatever and puts his
  >>    code under GPL
  >> 
  >> 2. Someone takes GPL code written by someone else and combines it with
  >>    Motif/Qt/whatever without the copyright owner's permission.
  >> 
  >> 1 is OK, 2 is not
  >
  >1 is not OK.
  >
  >Firstly, the author has been incompetent in their choice of licence, and I 
  >feel it's our duty to educate them.
  >
  >Secondly, there is a small possibility that they chose the GPL in the 
  >knowledge of RMS's opinion on this issue, and they intended their code to be
  >distributable under the GPL on Solaris, but not on Linux.

As you say, a _small_ possibility -- vanishingly small, in my opinion, and
in the case of KDE, non-existent.
  >
  >If the licence said  ``you can distribute this code on Solaris, but not on
  >Linux because I hate those chaotic loosers'' then I don't think you'd be
  >trying to say that distributing the code on Debian was complying with the
  >author's wishes.

If any author felt this, he would say so.
  >
  >Without the clarification of a ``GPL, but also linkable against Motif'' 
  >licence, we should not be distributing this stuff, even if there is no court
  >in the world that would punish us for doing so.
  >
I can only say, that I disagree.
-- 
Oliver Elphick                                Oliver.Elphick@lfix.co.uk
Isle of Wight                              http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
               PGP key from public servers; key ID 32B8FAA1
                 ========================================
     "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay 
      down his life for his friends."      John 15:13 



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