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Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy


From: amicus_curious
Subject: Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:44:58 -0500


"Hyman Rosen" <hyrosen@mail.com> wrote in message news:ol5gl.3415$Jd4.1769@newsfe02.iad...
David Kastrup wrote:
Since when?  If I send a personal letter to someone, I don't charge a
fee for it.  He still is not authorized for redistributing my letter or
using its content in publications of his.

This is the usual argument of the "GPL is invalid" claimers.
They say that they can honor the part of the GPL which allows
anyone to make copies and distribute them but ignore the part
of the license which tells them what they must do in return.

It's just like when you buy a car. You are told that you may
drive away with the car in return for a sum of money, and you
accept the "drive away with the car part" and do so, but say
that you do not need to honor the "in return for a sum of
money" part. It's unlikely that the forces of the law will be
amused by the argument in the case of the car or the GPL.

Well, silly, that is indeed the situation. If you don't send in the money, you are sued for it. The car is the collateral for the loan, so it can be reposessed if the payments are not made as contractually agreed. In the case of th GPL, the deal is more like you are told that you can drive away with the car for free and, if you are asked by someone, you have to tell them where you got it. Then sometime later, they find out that you didn't tell someone who had asked. Do you think the law will go after you with the same vigor?



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