Is the contract restricted to the buyers, or to the "any 3rd party" of the GPL?

Posted Jan 26, 2026 17:37 UTC (Mon) by paulj (subscriber, #341)
In reply to: Is the contract restricted to the buyers, or to the "any 3rd party" of the GPL? by kleptog
Parent article: SFC v. VIZIO: who can enforce the GPL?

> Please do not assume the rest of the world works like it does in the UK/US.

Worth also bearing in mind the rest of the EU doesn't per se work like NL. There is at least 1 (or 2?) EU member state that derives from English common law* - Ireland (and Malta?).

Though, it may be the GPL does not lead to a contract in common law jurisdictions either. Not clear to me - nor are the implications clear. There was an article on LWN in '03 from Pamela Jones: https://lwn.net/Articles/61292/

* Note, English common law - not "UK common law". Scotland has a distinct system.