Re: GNU licenses

[Alexander Terekhov]

John Hasler wrote:
[...]
> You do not give up any rights by distributing under the GPL.

You need to contact IBM's legal counsel and set them straight before 
they further embarrass themselves, uncle Hasler.

Wallace (to the Appellate Judges):

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IBM et al. state [IBM Brief at 15, ¶1] “The ownership interests
contributors to software licensed under the GPL might have in their
modifications are seriously limited, given that any distribution of 
those modifications must be done under the terms of the GPL”. This 
statement constitutes a mea culpa with respect to the extension of 
“intellectual property rights beyond those conferred by Congress” 
[see IBM Brief at 15, ¶2].

The contractual extension of control to the copyrights of all third
parties who accept the GPL offer is an egregious misuse of copyright 
that may rise to the level of an antitrust violation. (“[W]e left 
open the question whether copyright misuse, unless it rises to the 
level of an antitrust violation. . .”) (Assessment Technologies of WI, 
LLC v. Wiredata. Inc., 350 F.3d 640 (7th Cir. 2003)).

The GPL purports to extend it’s intellectual property control to all
third parties’ software patents as well as copyrights. (“Finally, any 
free program is threatened constantly by software patents. . . To 
prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed 
for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.”) [Ex A (GPL) at 1]. 
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regards,
alexander.