Re: OFF TOPIC about GPL enforcement (Was: Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: [Libreoffice] Proposal to join Apache OpenOffice)

----- Original Message ----

> From: plino <pedlino@gmail.com>
> To: discuss@documentfoundation.org
> Sent: Fri, June 17, 2011 10:12:01 AM
> Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC about GPL enforcement (Was: Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: 
> [Libreoffice] Proposal to join Apache OpenOffice)
>
> @BRM sorry to burst your fantasy world...
>
> We are not discussing some  theoretical situation with A, B, C, D, etc

No, that is just to help aid the conversation on the actual topic which you seem 
to have lost. Please go back and read the archives.
 
> This topic and this forum is  about a PUBLIC free office suite (yes, I
> noticed you deliberately ignored my  argument)

And no, I never ignored that portion of your argument. The whole discussion (so 
summarize) - which you seem to have lost - is what happens if someone takes a 
copy of that PUBLIC free office suite called TDF/LO and makes their own version 
of it, making a non-public release - a release similar to a closed source one 
that only goes to their customers - and what then happens to the changes, and 
who has standing to get the source - even under the GPL. In other words, what is 
to prevent IBM, Oracle, or any other similar company from making a derivation of 
TDF/LO and only it to their own customers? The argument presented against the 
ASL was that they could do that and that the GPL guarenteed that the community 
would get the source back from them; and the point is that it does not do that - 
only that their customers get that right, not the community - not TDF/LO.

> In this case the GPL clearly says that the written license MUST  be
> distributed with the program. Period.

I have never disputed that. It also says that a binary only distribution must be 
provided with a written offer to obtain the source, implying that the written 
offer is in addition to the copy of the license.

Ben


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