Matthew Kloth <[email protected]> writes: > Is it legally possible to create a copyleft license that automatically > forces all derivatives to have the same license?
What work is being proposed for inclusion in Debian? Hypotheticals are rarely helpful in the absence of a concrete work so that its specific issues can be discussed. First, the force doesn't come from the license; a license *permits* actions that are otherwise restricted by copyright law. The restrictive force comes from copyright law, so it makes no sense to talk of a license “forcing” someone to do anything. Second, would it be acceptable that you permit redistribution under license terms that are different, but *no more restrictive than* the license terms you grant? If so, that's entailed within the general meaning of a copyleft license. > It would be an art license, not a software license, if that makes any > difference. I think it doesn't; there is no clear line between programs and art, and depending on such a distinction for legal difference is a fool's game. They're all software (digitally-encoded information), even if the FSF disagrees with that usage. The GPL is fine for applying to any digital work, in my opinion. > I know the GPL is often accused of doing this, but I was wondering if > it was actually legally possible. What you may be referring to is the entire purpose of copyleft: to permit redistribution, provided the redistribution terms apply no additional restrictions on any recipient. The GPL is a copyleft license, as is the CC-By-SA license. They both specify that you must grant all recipients all the terms in the license; but they also allow licensing under “compatible” terms, which means you can also grant the recipient additional permissions. Unfortunately, the GPL and CC-By-SA are not compatible with each other, which means a work combining both sets of license terms would need to make very clear what terms apply and how the incompatibility is resolved. It's for that reason that I strongly recommend you license the entire work as free software, under a single well-understood license. -- \ “I was in a bar the other night, hopping from barstool to | `\ barstool, trying to get lucky, but there wasn't any gum under | _o__) any of them.” —Emo Philips | Ben Finney -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
