Behringer [was Re: [linux-audio-user] Re: [linux-audio-dev] RME is no more]

[Frank Barknecht]

Hallo,
Mark Knecht hat gesagt: // Mark Knecht wrote:

> On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 22:09:17 +0100, Frank Barknecht <fbar at footils.org> wrote:
> <SNIP>
> > 
> > Nobody can steal free software, because they already own it. (As long
> > as they follow the rules as stated in the GPL etc.) 
> 
> This is so patently untrue I cannot imagine how you got here. 
> 
> GPL == GP License
> 
> Nothing under GPL is 'owned' by me. It is 'licensed'. I didn't create
> it so I don't have any rights other than those granted me. If you own
> something you can do anything you want with it simply because you own
> it. If it is licensed you must follow the terms of the license
> specifcally because the real owner only grants you the rights in the
> license.

Well, that's what I wrote: As long as you follow the license, you can
do everything you want with it. The free software licenses are
designed in a way, that you can do everything, that does not try to
take away the right to do everything with the software from other
users. Even the original "owner", the autor of the software, cannot
take away these rights once he released a piece of code under a libre
license. In this way he is as much an "owner" as you are. (He is more
"owner" in the case that he wants to double license his code under a
non-free licens, but then this piece of code is not free software
anymore. He still cannot take back the code he already had set free.)

I am not strictly talking "law" here. But e.g. the FSF is working on
freeing software from owners (Why Software Should Not Have Owners,
[1]) by giving authors the same rights as users (and thus making them
"owners", too, in a way)

[1] http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/why-free.html

Ciao
-- 
 Frank Barknecht                               _ ______footils.org__