Disclaimer

[Matthew East]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 6:56 PM, Matthew East <mdke at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> I think there is a general misunderstanding about the nature of the
> legal relationships that Ubuntu's use entails. For example, on
> http://www.ubuntu.com/legal it states that the use of Ubuntu is
> governed by the licence agreements. That's not true either - those
> licences exist to facilitate *redistribution* of the software (as
> opposed to use), and to define the conditions for that.

I got thinking about this distinction a bit further, looked into some
basic software law and read the GPL properly. What I said in the
paragraph above isn't right - our licences do in fact grant permission
to use software, as well as to redistribute it. Doh.

The point about how best to communicate whatever terms of use we seek
to impose for using Ubuntu is still an interesting one, and I still
think the MOTD is not the best place.

-- 
Matthew East
http://www.mdke.org
gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF