no, he's 99% right

no, he's 99% right

Posted Dec 5, 2003 17:12 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)
In reply to: no no no by coriordan
Parent article: The GPL Is a License, not a Contract

every paragraph above is wrong, probably every sentence.

I find every sentence and paragraph correct and valid (and consistent with the article) with one crucial exception: The implied assent to the contract. The comment suggests that simply availing oneself of a GPL license could count as agreement to a contract.

It's a fair theory, but not supported in case law. You have to do something more explicit to agree to a contract. There is such a thing as a unilateral, or public, contract, which means you publish an offer that says, "If you do X, then I promise to do Y." Most people who distribute GPL software don't make such an offer, but even if they did (where "Y" would be "grant you a GPL license"), the way unilateral contracts work is that the offeror cannot sue the offeree for noncompliance (because the offeree's compliance was what made the contract exist).

I'm a contract lawyer, by the way, but have only a passing acquaintance with intellectual property law.

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