WASTE and the GPL, plus a patch for the code

[dsr at tao.merseine.nu (dsr at tao.merseine.nu)]

On Mon, Jun 02, 2003 at 09:58:45AM -0400, Derek Martin wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> On Mon, Jun 02, 2003 at 09:32:19AM -0400, Robert L Krawitz wrote:
> > The GPL is not a contract.  It's a conditional grant of additional
> > rights that would otherwise not be granted under copyright (so states
> > the FSF).  As it notes, you're not required to accept the GPL, but in
> > that case you only have the normal rights that come with copyright --
> > in particular, no right to distribute.
> 
> How is that not a contract?  You are granted something, namely rights
> to distribute source code, in exchange for something, namely your
> agreement to abide by the terms of the license agreement.  That sounds
> like a contract to me...  In the case that you do not agree to the
> terms of the license (contract), the rights you have are those you
> would have in the absence of the contract, just as is the case with
> any proposed contractual agreement.  If you accept the terms, you are
> bound by the contract.  If you don't, statutory law applies.

It's not a contract because it isn't governed by contract law, it's
governed by copyright law.

Copyright comes into effect automatically for any creative work. Then,
the creator can assign various rights to anyone they please, under
whatever terms they please. The GPL is a standardized way of assigning
rights.

A contract must be entered into voluntarily by two or more parties; it
must be negotiable on both sides; both sides need to be aware that they
are entering a contract.

The creator of a work initially owns all the rights to it, as governed
by copyright law. They can announce that the work is available under the
terms of the GPL, and no contract has occurred. A random person can use
the work under the terms of the GPL, and still no contract has occurred.
The creator can negotiate with FooCorp to give certain rights to
FooCorp, and that would be a contract -- between the creator and
FooCorp. No contract exists with the random public.

-dsr-

-- 
Network engineer / pre-sales engineer available in the Boston area.
http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr