Re: More FSF hypocrisy

[Hyman Rosen]

Rjack wrote:
> How many times do you have to be told that the Copyright Act
> does not grant an *EXCLUSIVE RIGHT* to control the distribution
> of a derivative work "as a whole"?

The copyright acts grants the exclusive right to authorize the copying
and distribution of a specific work. Inherent in that exclusive right
is the right to control the details of that authorization, exemplified
by book authors selling hardcover and paperback publication rights to
separate publishers.

The GPL is not asserting control over distributing the combined or
derivative work as a whole. It simply says that if you wish to copy and
distribute the covered work as part of a combined or derivative work,
you may do this only if you distribute the work as a whole under the GPL.

If you can't or won't do that, you have no permission to include the
GPLed work in the combined work. Nothing forces the copyright holder
of the GPLed work to grant such permission, and copyright law forbids
copying and distributing the GPLed work as part of a combined work
absent that permission.