sane dependencies -- a positive look at 'fix your packages'

[Roozbeh Pournader]

On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 18:24, Sean Middleditch wrote:

> (there's doubt that even the
> GPL is really valid if the user is never forced to agree to it, or even
> *see* it, to use the software)

I'm sorry, you are very mistaken. GPL is completely irrelevant to the
*user*, it's only relevant if you want to *copy* the software.

And if you want to copy the software, you are automatically bound by the
copyright "law" (whether or not you've seen an EULA), which doesn't give
you the right to copy the software for some certain purposes. If
somebody copies the software without seeing the license, he may have
already been breaking the law.

In short, if you don't see the license, you may *use* the software for
any purpose (which is allowed by GPL), but you may not *copy* it. If you
see it, you may do whatever it allows you to do.

I agree that certain proprietary pieces of software need EULAs, but
we're not talking about GPL, or most of Free Software licenses for that
matter.

Roozbeh