[MPlayer-dev-eng] KiSS of copyright

[Christof Buergi]

Diego Biurrun sagte:
>> IANAL, but I think you're wrong. KiSS never accepted the license,
>> so you
>> may not enforce it.
>
> No, you are wrong.
>
> MPlayer is copyrighted.  To use copyrighted material you need the
> permission of the copyright holder, i.e. a license.  Using copyrighted
> material without permission is a crime in most countries.  MPlayer is
> only available under the terms of the GPL.  By using MPlayer you
> implicitly accept the terms of the GPL, otherwise you would be
> knowingly infringing copyright.

Well, I'm applying swiss law, but this is about contract law and
copyright law, which is almost identical all over europe.

Usage of the software is only seen as implicit acceptance, if the user
must see a copy of the license prior of the use. And neither
shrink-wrap licenses nor click-through licenses have been regarded to
be good enough in the past. Thus, as you mentioned correctly, this is
a copyright infringement. Otherwise, it would be a contract
infringement. Copyright law doesn't give you the right to enforce a
license. It is possible, though, to sue KiSS for damages. But this
could very well turn out to be a lengthy and costly lawsuit. This is
why I think, Gabu's deal was a good one.

-- 
                     _ ___                    / \
|/  /\   /\   /\  | \   |  |                  \ /
|\ /--\ /  \ /  \ | /_  |  |                   x
Say no to HTML in Mail and News!              / \