Re: The GPL and Patents: ROFL

[Alan Mackenzie]

In gnu.misc.discuss Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> wrote:

> "New copyrights" would mean extra restrictions.

Are you sure you don't mean extra protections?  ;-)

> The GPL is a license, not a contract. You don't "agree" to the
> GPL, you "accept" the terms of the GPL when you copy and distribute
> GPL-covered code whose rights you do not own. As part of "accepting"
> the GPL, you "agree", i.e., promise, not to claim your patent rights
> if they are embodied in the GPL-covered software you are copying and
> distributing when it is further used, copied, or distributed under
> the terms of the GPL.

Indeed so.  It's amazing how often the plain truth needs to be restated
here.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).