[MPlayer-dev-eng] KiSS of copyright

[D Richard Felker III]

On Thu, Mar 25, 2004 at 10:52:32PM +0100, Christof Buergi wrote:
> D Richard Felker III sagte:
> > No, you do not need a license to "use" software. The GPL makes it
> > abundantly clear that this is true at least for the GPL.
> 
> All right. As I told before, I am no lawyer. But I had classes about
> copyright. And this matter was something we discussed a long time.
> Thus, I'm absolutely postive that you are very wrong.

Your class was taught by the idiots who want it to be that way.

If you want me to believe this nonsense, SHOW ME THE LAW that says you
have to have a license. These is no such law.

> Software is the only copyrightable thing, were you *don't* have a
> right to use it. You *need* the explicit authorisation from whoever
> holds the rights to the program. So, technically spoken, you are not
> even allowed to boot Linux if you don't agree to the GPL. In fact, you
> would be liable for damages.

This is blatently a LIE. Why don't you READ the fucking GPL which
EXPLICITLY says you are not required to accept it to use the
software???

In fact some idiotic authors of GPL software (which includes other
people's GPL code) make you click a click-thru GPL in order to
download the source. This is ILLEGAL, because the GPL does not allow
additional restrictions to be placed when copying/distributing, and
requiring someone to agree to the GPL ** IS AN ADDITIONAL RESTRICTION
**.

Rich