Re: Circumventing the GPL

[David Kastrup]

Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> writes:

> John Hasler wrote:
>> Sure, you could buy Debian CD sets from CheapBytes, throw away the
>> source CDs, and sell the binary ones.  So what?  Are suggesting that
>> company B contract with company A to do this?  If so company A is
>> company B's agent and the GPL is violated, not circumvented.
>
> I don't see anything in the GPL that would imply that when
> one company hires another to create GPLed software, the two
> companies become united into a single entity. The GPL does
> not talk about agents.

You mean if I pay somebody to drop a brick from a window when I signal
him, I am not accountable for murder?

> It's also perfectly legal for one company to pay another to
> develop modified works derived from GPLed code, and to pay
> that company more money in exchange for not distributing the
> software to anyone else. The software developer delivers the
> multiple copies of sources and binaries to the hiring company,
> gets money to not deliver it to anyone else, and is done. The
> hiring company uses the first sale doctrine to resell only the
> binaries.

You'll have a hard time explaining to the judge that this first company
was not acting on your behalf and is an independent seller of
prepackaged software.

A really hard time.

The difference between computers and judges are that neither considers
it funny if you try meeting the letter of the law while violating its
intent.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum