Re: When is a GPL program which runs in a web site 'conveyed'?

[Tim Smith]

In article <G3pck.44405$Wb2.38248@fe107.usenetserver.com>,
 Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> wrote:
> > If they had wanted something stronger, they could have easily written 
> > the license to define modification as being any change from the original.
> 
> No, they cannot, because as rjack points out, the courts
> have decided that a copyright license can only prohibit that
> which is already disallowed under copyright absent any license.
> The only thing the GPL (and AGPL) can do is grant you extra
> freedoms.

They aren't require to stick to using a bare copyright license.  They 
could instead make the license a contract (like almost every other free 
software/open source license...), and then there would be no problem 
with prohibiting things that are otherwise allowed under copyright law.

There's a good discussion in Rosen's book on open source licensing of 
why it is best to make your open source licenses be contracts.

-- 
--Tim Smith