[Info-vax] The real problem that needs solving to grow VMS

[Simon Clubley]

On 2022-12-16, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/15/22 20:23, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> 
>> If it went to court and GPL lost in lower court, then I predict that
>> the GPL defenders could collect a billions dollars to help with the
>> appeal in an hour just by calling all the big IT companies.
>
> Or the other possibility being that those billions of dollars would
> be applied to arguing that because it was given away with a totally
> bogus license it has actually been released into the public domain.
>

That doesn't make any sense Bill.

The GPL is a permission to use software created by the author under
a set of conditions imposed by that author.

If the GPL is found to be something that cannot be imposed, then the
permission granted by the author is revoked, and hence nobody but the
author can use the software until they release it under a new licence.

There is no possible path from "the GPL is invalid" to "the author no
longer has any rights over the software they created" (which is what
public domain means).

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.