Re: lynx-dev Patent on Hyperlinks

[Klaus Weide]

On Sat, 24 Jun 2000, David Woolley wrote:

> According to recent press articles, British Telecom have just discovered
> that they have a US patent on hyperlinks and are intending to try to
> get royalties from US ISPs.
> 
> I don't know the scope of the patent, but if it covers browsers, and they
> choose to demand royalties on, even just commercial, use in browsers, 
> the Lynx licence to re-distribute would become void (GPL clause 7).

Not so fast.  Some company's _demand_ cannot possibly void the licence
to distribute lynx.  In clause 7, the GPL says: "For example, if a patent
_license_ would not permit royalty-free redistribution [...], then [...]
refrain entirely from distribution [...]."  (emphasis added)

You gotta accept a license first, in order to then have a conflict that
would prevent you from distributing lynx.

   Klaus


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