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Not making a source code offer

Not making a source code offer

Posted Jan 28, 2026 13:00 UTC (Wed) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: Not making a source code offer by farnz
Parent article: SFC v. VIZIO: who can enforce the GPL?

And while copyright infringement is (aiui) a civil infringement in the US, under English law I think it's treated like trespass. As such, if you don't know you're infringing or have good grounds to believe "everything will be all right", it's a civil matter. If you "knew or should have known" permission would be refused, it becomes a criminal matter.

"everything will be alright" - things like postie doesn't ask permission to walk on your driveway because he assumes you want to get your post. You don't ask your friends for permission before you go round their house because you assume they'll say "come in!".

Whereas the signs "Trespassers will be prosecuted" are stating quite clearly that things *won't* be "all right", and placing you on notice that trespass will be treated as a criminal matter.

Cheers,
Wol


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