[ Date Index ][
Thread Index ]
[ <= Previous by date /
thread ]
[ Next by date /
thread => ]
On Tuesday 12 October 2004 1:10 am, Adrian Midgley wrote:
On Monday 11 October 2004 15:49, Neil Williams wrote:Restricting code when you have the choice to keep it free is theft, you are keeping for today what should be inherited by the future.Ah, Proudhon. But if all property is theft, from whom has it been stolen?
It is possible to steal abstract objects - to remove the right for someone in the future to do something that would otherwise be encouraged. Key point: The author has a huge responsibility to choose the licence and therefore the status of the work as only the author can CHANGE this status at a later date, either her/himself or by assigning copyright to another - until the copyright itself lapses. If the author chooses a restrictive licence, that will affect the usability of that code into the future. Copyright used to be far more temporary than today and the RIAA and others in the USA want to extend it far beyond even current limits. In practical terms, copyright already exceeds the useful life of most code, so the choice of licence is, in effect, permanent.
I think it would only be theft if one went forward to the future, and removed something that they already had, which seems intrinsically unlikely.
Restricting code is exactly that - the code goes forward into the future unchanged, as in the nature of digital copies. By changing the status of the code NOW, you force a change in the status of the code at any realistic point in the future as well. If you don't make the change, the code may remain unrestricted - subject to anyone else obtaining the rights to change the status of the code or a flaw in the licence that allows re-licencing of copies under a restrictive licence, as BSD does. Licences are granted in perpetuity. A work licenced under the GNU GPL remains under the auspices of that licence until the licence becomes invalid. In the case of the GPL, no date is set and permission is specifically denied to restrict any of the freedoms granted under the licence, so unless someone successfully invalidates the licence in a court of law, the licence will remain in effect for as long as any software covered by the licence remains under copyright. The choice of licence now causes a direct effect on the status of the code for the entire time that the code (and licence) remain available. In space:time, if you change something now, it has an effect on the future - causality, just as if time travel were possible and someone changed something by travelling from the future it could have an effect on the past, present and future. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.codehelp.co.uk/ http://www.dclug.org.uk/ http://www.isbn.org.uk/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/isbnsearch/ http://www.biglumber.com/x/web?qs=0x8801094A28BCB3E3
Attachment:
pgp00036.pgp
Description: PGP signature