RE: RE: RC197 Online

For feature requests and bug reports RC15 RC16. Please use the forum at http://forum.ultravnc.net/

Josh & Steve,

The GPL is a legally binding contract between the author of software and the
recipient, that guarantees the recipient certain rights and protects the
author in certain ways.  Because the recipients rights (to have access to
the source code for example) are commutative, they become responsibilities
of that person should they author software based on the GPL code.

"GPL violations" are effectively violations of the author(s) copyright, and
so the onus is typically on the copyright holder to defend their copyright.
The GPL refers to this as Copyleft, which I think refers to the use of
copyright law to defend the free redistribution of something rather than to
hinder it.

Anyway, in this instance, Rudi's had an unfortunate computer crash and has
been hassled for sourcecode that he hasn't got immediately to hand, but
which he intends to reproduce and has given a fairly specific timeframe for,
so it's clear he's acting in good faith and I'd say that's good for all
concerned. :)

Cheers!

Wez @ RealVNC Ltd.


> > Also, Bob brought up the VNC ActiveX control that is being 
> sold on the
> > Internet without source and with no intent to offer it.  
> Who is to enforce
> > the GPL on him, UltraVNC, or anyone else for that matter?  
> Is there an
> > authority that forces compliance?  If not, then why even 
> bother debating it?
> > 
> 
> I believe that the Free Software Foundation are the ones charged with 
> the defending of the GPL, http://www.fsf.org. As I understand it 
> violators of the GPL are typically compelled to comply with 
> the terms of 
> the GPL and frequently to make a contribution to the FSF to further 
> their work. I seem to recall that's what happened to Linksys 
> when they 
> failed to release the code for a number of their products that were 
> Linux based.
> 
> Josh



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