GPL survives antitrust challenge - again

GPL survives antitrust challenge - again

Posted Nov 10, 2006 2:59 UTC (Fri) by bojan (subscriber, #14302)
In reply to: GPL survives antitrust challenge - again by louie
Parent article: GPL survives antitrust challenge - again

Yeah, that's what I quoted as well.

When the judge says "the license prohibits charging for the derivative work", he isn't referring to charging for a physical copy of the work - he's referring to charging for royalties. The whole section is in the context of copyright, where physical objects have almost no meaning. That's why I quoted that additional paragraph, which further clarifies that the meaning of "collect[ing] a fee" is in the context of "limiting reproduction", which is a matter of copyright.

So, he's right on the money (excuse the pun :-), as GPL requires distribution of software on royalty-free basis. That's exactly the FSF interpretation as well. You can charge for physical copies of the work, but you cannot collect royalties for the copyright licence you're giving with the work.

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