[ubuntu-uk] The genius of FSF

[Mac]

Mark Harrison wrote:
> Mac wrote:
>> You do have to hand it to Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen and their 
>> colleagues - the genius evident in GPLv3 just takes your breath away:

> I'm no lawyer, but in the UK at least, there are at least two problems 
> with the "legal analysis" here:
> 
> - I had understood that a new contract / law could never apply 
> retroactively. I believe that the same applies in the US.
> - I had understood that a contract could not be used to cause a party to 
> commit a criminal offence. In the UK at least, such a contract term 
> would be struck down by the courts (and usually, any contract would 
> include a clause that explicitly said that if one part of the contract 
> were found to be illegal, the rest still stood.)


As I understand it, GPLv3 is not a contract;  it's a waiver of copyright 
that passes to those who also waive copyright.  This is what's so clever 
about it - it just doesn't work like a contract or licence.  I think 
this is why patent/copyright lawyers have such trouble with it:  it's 
anti-matter!

Best wishes

Mac