Marginally related: SCO violating GPL? [LWN.net]

Marginally related: SCO violating GPL?

Posted Nov 29, 2004 23:21 UTC (Mon) by im14u2c (subscriber, #5246)
Parent article: SCO.com defaced

Should someone sue SCO for violating the GPL, or am I misunderstanding this clause of the GPL:

4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.

Since SCO wants $$ for Linux licenses, they're effectively abridging the GPL through sublicensing with an incompatible license, and so lose all rights to the software under the GPL. Thus, they cannot use Linux themselves. Yet, according to Netcraft, they run Apache on Linux. Or are they using a hosting company that won't eat the SCO dogfood?

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Marginally related: SCO violating GPL?

Posted Nov 30, 2004 1:54 UTC (Tue) by dmaxwell (guest, #14010) [Link]

IBM includes GPL violation on their contributions to the Linux kernel among their counterclaims in the suit.

GPL doesn't cover use

Posted Dec 11, 2004 0:01 UTC (Sat) by ljardine (guest, #26602) [Link]

You'll note that nowhere in #4 ( 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License...) does the word 'use' appear. It's perfectly legal to use a GPL program without accepting the license; furthermore, the GPL cannot take the right to use away, even if you have accepted it.

The right to use the program comes from the entity distributing the program to you having the right to do so; if you have aquired the program from someone with the right to give it to you, you can always use it. In addition, depending on your jurisdiction, you may have 'fair use' rights which the GPL (or other, less Free licenses) cannot take away either.

This is not legal advice. Consult your lawyer if you want legal advice.