Re: Intellectual Property II

[Alexander Terekhov]

Alexander Terekhov wrote:
[...]
> http://www.ifso.ie/documents/gplv3-launch-2006-01-16.html
> 
> ------
> This would not be a presentation about the GPL by me if emphasis was not
> placed on what you see before you now. This license is
> 
> "Not a Contract.
> 
> You are not required to accept this License in order to receive a copy
> of the Program."
> 
> We have not argued now, nor will we, nor can anyone argue, who reads the
> text of the language, that the receipt of the code is some quid-pro-quo
> for the acceptance of some terms. If you are existing in a legal system
> in which that wasn't what made it a contract, then ...go with God, but
> arguments based on the contractual exchange of the code for promises of
> compliance have nothing to do with us. We give permissions here and the
> enforcement weight of our license lies in the fact that you have no
> permission to propagate, that is, you have no permission to do what
> copyright law requires permission to do, but through this license.
> That's our legal theory and we are sticking to it.
> ------

On another forum, I've posted a link to 

emoglen.law.columbia.edu/research-agenda.html

as an example of Moglen's talent in bullshit rap:

----
Current research proceeds by facilitating 
high-energy collisions between widely-dispersed 
non-homogeneous randomly-motivated incremental 
acts of individual creativity and large masses 
of ill-gotten wealth. 
----

I've also asked if anyone ever saw a computer program written by Eben

----
I am a historian and a computer programmer,
----

(nodody replied thus far).

Finally, I suggested that someone must tell Eben that he got a broken 
link to Manifesto of the Communist Party. 

----
See Moglen, The DotCommunist Manifesto[link] (2003). See and hear 
Moglen, The DotCommunist Manifesto: How Culture Became Property and 
What We're Going to Do About It[link] (University of North Carolina, 
Chapel Hill, November 8, 2001). See also Crane Brinton, The Anatomy 
of Revolution (New York, Prentice-Hall: 1952) (mult. repr.) (unfree); 
Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy; 
Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (Boston, Beacon 
Press: 1966) (mult. repr.) (unfree); Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, 
Manifesto of the Communist Party[BROKEN link], (English ed. London, 
1888) (Engels ed.) (mult. repr.) (mult. trans.).
----

daydone commented:

----
Now Alex let's not rag on Eben's qualities. It is well known that 
Eben has impeccable credentials and legal judgement. His wisdom is 
spread far and wide. Ever free software advocate in the United 
States accepts what Eben says as gospel truth:

"Licenses are not contracts: the work's user is obliged to remain 
within the bounds of the license not because she voluntarily 
promised, but because she doesn't have any right to act at all 
except as the license permits."

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/enforcing-gpl.html

Even Groklaw's PJ knows this to be a fact:

"The GPL is a License, Not a Contract, Which is Why the Sky Isn't 
Falling"

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20031214210634851

Only a small, irrelevent segment of the U.S. population doesn't 
know this. . . the entire federal judiciary and the professional 
lawyers hired to defend the F.S.F.

Perhaps with Eben's charm they'll come to see things his way. . . 
I guess one can always hope.
----

regards,
alexander.