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| Authored by: PolR on Wednesday, June 13 2012 @ 10:05 PM EDT |
I just had an image of someone "aggressively" distributing software by
firing all over the place missiles full of GPLed code... And of course each
missile also contained a copy of the source code so it is kosher... LOL
Sorry couldn't resist...[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, June 14 2012 @ 03:11 PM EDT |
Actually, I'd say it is.
Many courts would say that, assuming the missile was
delivered onto land that you own, the missile is now your
property.
Military hardware -including foreign hardware - might be
government property in some jurisdictions; there might be
all kinds of laws about handling heavy weapons or opening
them up and trying to identify the code, so let's keep it
simple. Instead of a cruise missile, it's an off-the-shelf
model airplane using an off-the-shelf navigation system with
GPL code in it. Somebody used the airplane to deliver
something nasty to you, maybe a strongly worded letter, and
it crashed on your property in the process. Assume we can
identify the sender with sufficient confidence for civil
jurisdiction [easier to do with cruise missiles].
Surely that's distribution. It might be accidental
distribution if the intent was to drop the letter/bomb and
fly away, but lets' assume the sender programmed it to crash
on your yard. (Even if distribution was unintentional, I
don't see why that wouldn't count, except maybe in cases of
theft.)
Result: sender must choose between sending you the source
code, and being liable for copyright infringement - to the
author of the source code for sure, and likely to you as an
intended third-party beneficiary (depends on jurisdiction).[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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