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Getting Rid of EULAs While Keeping the GPL | 26 comments (26 topical) | Post A Comment
Oops[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#15)
by Anonymous User on Wed Apr 13, 2005 at 07:55:15 AM PDT

Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to imply that in the absence of a contract ANYTHING GOES. Even without a contract, all existing legal protections would exist and would apply, such as copyright, patent, DMCA (ugh!), etc. But, still, I wonder, how can the terms of a LICENSE be enforced WITHOUT a contract? Is that possible? Can I be held accountable to the terms of a license if I DON'T KNOW and DID NOT AGREE to a license. What if I just found some GPLed software on a disk and incorporated it in my own proprietary software. I can see how the remedy might be to force me to remove the GPL code from my software, but I don't see how any additional liability can accrue when I was ignorant of the license. A CONTRACT PROVES knowledge. The mere existence of a license does not. Can any legal scholars respond to this?

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Re: Oops[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#19)
by warnold on Wed Apr 13, 2005 at 02:47:16 PM PDT

but I don't see how any additional liability can accrue when I was ignorant of the license
This is easy.
Acording to the GPL, no additional liability accrues due to the GPL. If you have agreed to the GPL and then violate it, the penalties are 1) You loose the rights you gained under the GPL. 2) you will be subject to the penalties for copyright violations from the time you became in violation of the GPL.
If you have not agreed to the GPL, then you are subject to the penalties for copyright violations from the time when you made a copy.

Note that agreeing to the GPL and then violating it is less liability than not agreeing and violating copyright. (by the amount of any copies you legally made between the time you agreed, and the time you violated)

The GPL is really interesting in this way. Whether you are subject to it or not is entirely up to you. Your liability comes from your actions, and the GPL only removes liability if you agree with it.

--
-billy-

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About the GPL[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#23)
by Jarulf on Wed Apr 13, 2005 at 11:15:19 PM PDT

I think this is an important and interesting point about the GPL you make. It is in fact, in my point of view, a true copyright license in that it actually grants you a license to part of the right the copyright holder has. It is a true license or permission to do something you could otherwise not do.

A EULA on the other hand, has minimal connection to the copyright or exclusive rights of the copyright holder. It typically does not at all grant you any additional copyright related rights. Actually it, normally, tries to restrict you in uncountable ways. It is, again in my point of view, a normal contract set up regulating (restricting) your behaviour.

The fact that both happens to contain the word "license" should not fool people into believing they are similar or about the same thing, and in the case of EULA, it is actually a bit bad naming.

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Getting Rid of EULAs While Keeping the GPL | 26 comments (26 topical) | Post A Comment
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