RE: GPL issues

David Schwartz
2006-04-14T18:57:55Z

> Ahhh, but you're missing the whole point of the GPL. The GPL is
> not really a normal license, it's a copyright license. Basically,
> copyright law doesn't allow you to do *anything* with someone elses
> work without permission. The GPL grants you such rights.
> However, in exchange for this, you agree to follow the license when
> redistributing your software that you built against the GPL:ed
> software.

Bluntly, you're just completely wrong. If this were so, I could put up a
billboard with a poem and then sue everyone who read it.

You should read http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

Notice, for example, that the rights granted under copyright do *not*
include the right to restrict the *use* of a work.

Far from copyright law starting out with the premise that you can do
nothing with a work, it basically restricts copying or distribution of a
work and the production of works based on that work other than what's
necessary for ordinary use.

Specifically, copyright does not protect ordinary use. If you buy a CD, you
get the right to use that CD simply by virtue of the fact that you lawfully
possess a lawfully made of the music on that CD.

DS