Fedora Freedom and linux-libre

[Horst H. von Brand]

Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

> But, I think you are the one missing the point at least from the
> perspective of the FSF or anyone likely to take legal action on behalf
> of the GPL.

Nobody can initiate legal action "on behalf of the GPL", only the kernel
copyright holders could initiate such action here. And that would be
ROTFLed out of court, as /they themselves/ created the kernel with the
express, and widely documented, intention for it to be distributed widely.

>              They claim that it doesn't matter if the components are
> distributed separately or not.  For example, you can't modify a GPL'd
> component so that it needs a library under different terms even if the
> parts are never distributed together.

Sure you can. In the heyday of GNU software it was /only/ run on propietary
systems, and all that software was routinely modified with the express
purpose of running on newer/changed versions of propietary systems (which
were the only ones available, remember).

> > Thus, it is not the intent of the GPL to claim rights or contest
> > your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
> > exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
> > collective works based on the Program.

> Whether it is a derivative or 'work as a whole' depends on the
> relationship of the parts, not temporary physical proximity.

Please state which laws or court decisions lead you to this conclusion, and
exactly what "relationship" has to be involved here.  This is /not/ about
what you (or I) would like (or consider logical), given our computer (and
other) background and preferences. Remember that this is an area of law
originally designed for a completely different purpose (literary works and
such, distributed as printed copies) pressed into service for something
totally alien. As such, only someone really trained in this mess (i.e., a
lawyer specializing in this area, hired for the purpose of looking into
this) can give you somewhat credible guidance.

>                                                              If the
> compiler keeps the parts separate so the downloading code can identify
> them to download the correct separate data to the correct separate
> device they are rather clearly separate things aggregated temporarily
> within a file.  This might be more obvious if it were easier for a
> human to identify the parts, but that's a mechanical detail.  The
> question of whether the relationship of the runtime code makes it a
> derived work might still remain, but it is unrelated to the bits of
> code and data having been aggregated as permitted.
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                    Fono: +56 32 2654431
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