JBoss aquired by Red Hat

Seth Gordon sethg at ropine.com
Thu Apr 27 16:40:07 EDT 2006


> It is the FSF's position that *distribution* of GPLed code under an NDA is
> prohibited by GPL because the NDA would impose a further restriction
> on redistribution.[1]
> 
> What you *may* do, *according to the FSF*, is agree to work with or on a
> GPLed program under an NDA in conditions in which you are not receiving
> or making distributions....
> 
> As a personal observation: I think the FSF is dead wrong here.

I would assume that this loophole exists because the GPL is a unilateral 
waiver of some of the author's rights under copyright law, and as long 
as the recipient of a program does nothing to *copy* it, the author has 
no leverage.

(You could attach non-copyright-related conditions by distributing the 
program with a click-wrap license, but then enforcing the license 
becomes a matter of contract law rather than copyright law.)



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