[MPlayer-dev-eng] Small talk on the GPL by laymen

[D Richard Felker III]

On Fri, Jan 16, 2004 at 09:07:38AM +0100, Romain Dolbeau wrote:
> D Richard Felker III wrote:
> 
> >No. The GPL does not have to be tried in court. If you do not meet its
> >terms, then you have no license to copy, and thus you're infringing
> >copyright. It's very simple.
> 
> Could be. Except if a court decide the entire GPL is
> void and therefore that any GPL software is unredistributable
> or at the opposite public domain. Unlikely, but you
> never know what a judge will say.

No, these suggestions are pure FUD. Speaking such nonsense is
counterproductive, and the only way such a thing could ever happen is
by FUDslinging idiots keeping on suggesting it's a possibility so that
irresponsible journals keep picking up and repeating such nonsense.

There is absolutely NO precedent for a court taking copyrighted
material and putting it in the public domain like this, much less
because it licenses people to do "too much". (On the other hand, the
courts have been happy to take public domain material and put it back
under copyright, illegally.)

As for unredistributable, that's utter nonsense. A court cannot do
such a thing because it's redistributable as long as the copyright
holder intends for it to be and doesn't prosecute anyone for
distribution. Further, to publish software with GPL and then try to
prosecute people for distribution would amount to fraud.

I'm really sick of people posting such stupidity. If you're gonna do
it, take it to slashdot where crap like that belongs and not the
MPlayer lists.

Rich