[LAD] Impro-Visor created on sourceforge

[Raymond Martin]

On Friday 07 August 2009 09:51:05 you wrote:
> On 7 Aug 2009, at 12:55, Raymond Martin wrote:
> > On Friday 07 August 2009 06:51:08 Paul Davis wrote:
> >> On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 6:30 PM, Ralf Mardorf<ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net
> >
> >> For emphasis, I just want to paste that sentence (and the following
> >> one) again for Raymond, with attribution:
> >>
> >> Eben Moglen, attorney for the FSF: "The claim that a GPL violation
> >> could lead to the forcing open of proprietary code that has
> >> wrongfully
> >> included GPL'd components is simply wrong. There is no provision in
> >> the Copyright Act to require distribution of infringing work on
> >> altered terms. "
> >
> > [...]
> > Perhaps you should read that paragraph again in the context of how
> > this whole discussion came about. Known free software, with a history of
> > being free, distributed under the GPL with the source code in the past,
> > was not being distributed with the source code at a point by the very same
> > people. So where would the altered terms be if the binary was decompiled
> > and source distributed for the application under consideration?
>
> This whole strand of the discussion came about because you had
> threatened to release a decompilation of Bob's ***MODIFIED*** preview
> release and I said:

Which was so obviously GPL to begin with. And was obviously intended
to be completely under the GPL in any release.

>   "Until and unless you have Bob's preview source files with GPL
> headers all present and correct, you don't have a license for the mods
> in that code."

Previous actions on his part show it was GPL already.

>
> I wrote that sentence quite carefully but here it is again with some
> emphasis on the pertinent words:
>
> Until and unless you have Bob's ***PREVIEW*** source files with GPL
> headers all present and correct, you don't have a license for ***THE
> MODS*** in that code.

You would be very hard pressed to prove in a court that the code wasn't
intended to be under GPL in the first place. This is a very important point
you are jumping over. There was a definite intention for ALL the code to be
GPL, not just the old portion that was already out. There was NO intention for
the MODS to be proprietary. There is a trail of public evidence of this.

So this idea that you cannot decompile something INTENDED to be
GPL in the first place is moot. In law it is called circumstances. They
must be considered.

Eben Moglen, attorney for the FSF says:

"But most proprietary software companies want more power than copyright alone 
gives them. These companies say their software is ``licensed'' to consumers, 
but the license contains obligations that copyright law knows nothing about. 
Software you're not allowed to understand, for example, often requires you to 
agree not to decompile it. Copyright law doesn't prohibit decompilation, the 
prohibition is just a contract term you agree to as a condition of getting 
the software when you buy the product under shrink wrap in a store, or accept 
a ``clickwrap license'' on line. Copyright is just leverage for taking even 
more away from users."

Indicates right there that there is nothing prohibiting decompilation, unless
you agree in a contract not to do it. GPL is a license and there is no 
agreement to not decompile GPL programs because there is no contractual
agreement not to do so. Thus, in the present case, decompilation does not
result in any violation at all. All the code was and is GPL, decompiling a
fully GPL program cannot result in any wrongdoing. Distributing it neither.

Raymond