Can usage of free software be restricted?

[David Mandelberg]

On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 22:03 +0200, Eric Feliksik wrote:
> I don't like this. It's not realistic to read those licenses for normal 
> use. Ubuntu ships software with many different licenses, and  reading 
[...]
> Thanks, for your time. I can be wrong about some things, so let me know. 
> I hope to hear your feedback.

By using the software, you implicitly agree to the license. While no
licenses that I know of require you to read the license, you still have
to abide by the license. For normal use, a person can abide by the
licenses used in the default Ubuntu desktop install without having to
read the licenses. As long as they don't plan on doing anything
questionable, they can get away with not reading the licenses as long as
they know the basics of the licenses.

I personally have read the GPL, LGPL, new style BSD, and MPL, but I've
never read the old X11 or some other free/libre software licenses; I
just take it on good faith that if it's DFSG free, I only have to read
the license if I plan to do something questionable (like make a
free/libre derivative or link something under another license against
it).

-- 
David Mandelberg <mandelbergd at eth0.is-a-geek.org>
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