Re: Looking for an open source license..

[David Kastrup]

John Hasler <john@dhh.gt.org> writes:

> I wrote:
>> From the BSD license:
>>
>> 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
>>    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
>> 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
>>    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
>>    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
>>
>> Thus when you distribute a program that includes BSD-licensed
>> material (and comply with the license) you are distributing that
>> material under the terms of the BSD license.
>
> David Kastrup writes:
>> But that does not mean that I have to give the recipient the same rights
>> I received unless I wish to do so.
>
> You have nothing to say in the matter.

Nonsense.

> The recipient gets his rights the same place you did: from the
> copyright owner,

Nonsense.  Copyright concerns tangible copies, and the recipient gets
the copy from me.  I can't, for example, make a copy of Microsoft
Windows and pass it to some customer, and that means that he gets the
same rights from Microsoft that I did.

> who required you to attach the license to the copy you gave the
> recipient.

Wrong: "must retain the list of conditions".  The trick is that
further conditions may be attached.  In each case, however, it is the
list of conditions _I_ choose under which I license the stuff on.  I
can even leave off conditions of the original (in violation of the
license I got), and the recipient may not reattach them at his whim.
He can only bring the case to the attention of the original copyright
holder who has standing to bring me into compliance.

>> And I might have strong inclination not to do so, like if the one
>>giving me the license having mentioned that he will stop doing
>>business with me if I sublicense under the BSD.
>
> Then he would not have used the BSD in the first place.

He might have had reasons to do so.  Not every business transaction is
completely controlled by what you can get away with before court.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum