Re: Attorney fees

[Hyman Rosen]

rjack wrote:
> Section 2(b) of the GPL requires:
>  b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
>     whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
>     part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
>     parties under the terms of this License.
>
> Now feast your eyes on the phrase: "licensed as a whole at no charge to all
> third parties"... see the *no charge* ? The language of the GPL itself 
> requires that no monetary damages are possible for the source code authors.

Feast your eyes on the phrase "under the terms of this license".

No monetary damages occurs when someone distributes under terms
of the license. Acceptance of the license is indicated by complying
with its terms. Failure to comply with its terms means that the
distribution is not under the terms of the license. It is either
under terms of a different license, which only the original author
can authorize, or it's under no license at all, in which case it's
a routine copyright violation, and normal monetary damages will apply.