[ILUG] "Munich halts biggest-ever Linux migration"

[Paul Jakma]

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004, Justin Mason wrote:

> as far as I know, these clauses:
>
>  6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
>  Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
>  original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
>  these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions
>  on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not
>  responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

This would have significance if the licensor is also the patent 
holder. The licensee potentially could argue the right to copy/modify 
hence implied the required rights to the patent (for this programme 
anyway) - But i've no idea how patent and copyright law can interact 
and whether such argument would be allowed.

It's definitely not interesting if the patent holder is a 3rd party 
(which is the case for most patent disputes, no?).

>  7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent

>  distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would
>  not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who
>  receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you
>  could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from
>  distribution of the Program.

This just clarifies that one can not distribute under the GPL if 
there are other factors that would restrict distribution (eg lack of 
patent licence).

(this reinforces above argument, that licensor must grant rights to a 
required patent to distribute under GPL, that lack of a licence might 
be a implied patent licence - but that'd be a very strange case.. 
like IBM shipping linux and suing a customer for violating RCU 
patents - and not applicable to case where patent holder is not a 
party to the licence.).

>  8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
>  certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
>  original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may
>  add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those
>  countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries
>  not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the
>  limitation as if written in the body of this License.

So the GPL can be used with geographical restrictions, if needs be, 
due to copyright/patent restrictions.

I dont quite see how GPL helps with 3rd party patent infringement 
allegations though..

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
Chinese saying: "He who speak with forked tongue, not need chopsticks."