Re: Copyright Misuse Doctrine in Apple v. Psystar

[Hyman Rosen]

Rjack wrote:
> "Terms of the license" are not honored when they are illegal or
> otherwise unenforcable under prevailing contract or copyright law.
> The GPL contains terms of this nature.

Good thing the GPL contains no terms of this nature.

> Is the GPL meant for only one user? I thought it was a "general
> public" license.

The case demonstrates that when a license grants conditional
privileges, it is then considered copyright infringement when
the licensee violates those conditions. In this case, it was
"one user". For the GPL, it's making source available.

GPL opponents have been seen to argue incorrectly that violating
the terms of the GPL is not copyright infringement.

> I haven't the slighted idea why you cited to this case

When it comes time for a court to decide that a "work embodied the
type of creativity that copyright laws exist to facilitate" it will
come down firmly on the side of GPL copyright holders and against
code grabbers.