legal October 2018

legal@lists.fedoraproject.org

18 participants
13 discussions

The GPLv2 is not a contract, it is a revocable license.
by svasthree＠8chan.co 15 Oct '18

15 Oct '18

The GPLv2 is not a contract, it is a revocable license. Here is a paper explaining what the GPL is and is not: http://illinoisjltp.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/kumar.pdf (With full citations). (PDF attached) Page 12 starts the relevant discussion. Page 16 begins the explanation of all the ways the GPL is not a contract. Later there is a short gloss of state law promissory estopple doctrines. Remember: in the case of the linux kernel it, unlike other projects, omitted the "or any later version" codicil, and is only under version 2 of the GPL, which makes no promise of irrevocability by grantor. (Note: The SFConservancy recently chose to publish a "correction" that conflates clauses, within version 2 of the GPL, [that clarify that if a licensee's license is revoked by operation of the license for a violation of the terms, that sub-licensees licenses are not-in-turn automatically revoked] - [with an inexistent irrevocability doctrine within the text of the GPLv2]) (Additionally: Clause 0 of GPLv2 specifically defines the "you" in said clauses as referring to the licensee (not the grantor); the SFConservancy's conflation is shown to be ever more disingenuous) The Linux Kernel License grant: Is Not: a contract. [No breach of contract damages vs grantor if rescinded] Is: a bare license akin to a property license. And: There is no "irrevocable by grantor" promise in v2. [No promissory estopple defense] .: Can be rescinded at will.

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Logging IRC channels and GPDR
by Dusty Mabe 12 Oct '18

12 Oct '18

/me waves at legal experts In the Fedora CoreOS community we'd like to log our IRC channel so we can refer back to conversations we've had or link people to conversations if they weren't in the channel and start a discussion with them while allowing them to gain full context. We were using botbot.me, but they will be shutting down soon [1]. We are looking to explore other options for this and are looking for legal help to know what we can and can not do. A few comments/questions: - logging channels seems to possibly conflict with GPDR - if we were to keep logs for a shorter period of time, would it help? - if an individual kept logs and provided a service, would that be possible or would that possibly have implications for the individual's employer? - Are fedora irc meeting logs something that should have GPDR concern? - If not, why not? Could the same reason apply to a general channel? Do you have any advice on how we can achieve this goal? See [2] where we have been having this discussion in Fedora CoreOS community. Thanks for any help you can provide! Dusty [1] https://lincolnloop.com/blog/saying-goodbye-botbotme/ [2] https://github.com/coreos/fedora-coreos-tracker/issues/11#issuecomment-4260…

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Higan in Copr
by Randy Barlow 01 Oct '18

01 Oct '18

Greetings! I noticed today that Higan[0] has been added to Copr. It's a game system emulator, and it includes some binary ROM files (for example, [4]) that I have been unable to determine the license for. I have attempted to contact the author to ask where these files came from and what their license is, but did not get a reply. The Higan website claims that these files are not subject to copyright law[5], but IANAL and am not familiar with any exceptions to Copyright law that would be unique to system ROM images, so I figured I would ask the legal list. Is Higan acceptable to be distributed by Fedora given these system ROM files that it includes? [0] https://byuu.org/emulation/higan/ [1] https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/brollylssj/higan/ [2] https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/raznikk [3] https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/meeuw/higan/ [4] https://gitlab.com/higan/higan/tree/master/higan/systems/Super%20Famicom.sys [5] https://byuu.org/emulation/higan/firmware

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legal October 2018