[OSM-dev] GPL stupidity

[Milo van der Linden]

Should:

"You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 
02110-1301, USA."

Be changed to something like:

"A copy of the GNU General Public License for this program is 
available at www.openstreetmap.org; You are commited to the latest
version of the license" 

?

In the Netherlands, a large company recently won a courtcase where a client sued them for some issue, he claimed, that came from this company having their license information online.

My hope is refering to online content will get the same value as sending it along or using good old mail.

(excuse me for not using the proper grammar, I am no native english speaker)



nicolas vigier schreef:
> On Thu, 08 Nov 2007, Frederik Ramm wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>>     
>>>> - have you thought of what you're writing there? If someone downloads
>>>> source code from our SVN, in what way "should" they "have received" a
>>>> copy of the GPL, 
>>>>         
>>> Some projects put the GPL on the server as well, so people can download it the 
>>> same way as they download the source. 
>>>       
>> The GPL is in numerous places on our SVN, even in the root directory,
>> but you do not "receive it" with a program that you download unless
>> you explicitly ask for it.
>>     
>
> It's the same, you can download it at the same place where you
> downloaded the software.
>
>   
>>>> and would anyone of you, when asked for the text of the 
>>>> GPL, actually respond with "write to the FSF"?
>>>>         
>>> If you do not receive a copy, you can complain about the distributor to the 
>>> FSF. Isn't that the meaning of "write to the FSF?"
>>>       
>> Oh, I never read it that way. So the license expects me to send
>> physical mail to the FSF whenever I check out a file from our SVN?
>>     
>
> No, because the license is available on the SVN.
>
>
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>   
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