Misunderstanding GPL's terms and conditions as restrictions

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Jul 27, 2008, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:

> Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> IOW, the whole is under the terms and conditions of the GPL.  The
>> permissions (1-3, in GPLv2) apply to each and every part as a
>> consequence of this.

> Not _just_ the permissions. The exact terms of the license must
> apply:

Exactly.  And the GPL *is* a set of permissions with conditions,
nothing but it.  Like any other Free Software license.

> It says the 'terms of this License'. You can't have the terms of this
> license without the terms of 2b also being applied.

2b is not a "terms" of the license, it is a condition for you to be
entitled to modify and distribute the work, or modified versions of
it, under the GPL.  If you want to distribute it under another
license, and you have some additional permission to do so, it doesn't
get in your way.

>> Now, what does agreeing to this amount to?  "You may breathe in, as
>> long as you breathe out.  Do you agree?"

> If you agree to
>     "cause any work that you distribute or publish,

You don't have to agree to that.  That's the point.  That's where
you're misreading it.  Please talk to a lawyer you trust.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva         http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Free Software Evangelist  oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org}
FSFLA Board Member       ¡Sé Libre! => http://www.fsfla.org/
Red Hat Compiler Engineer   aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org}