🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <GUMBY.90Apr29041714@Cygnus.COM> gumby@Cygnus.COM (David Vinayak Wallace) writes:
> I can't understand what all this ``unwilling'' and ``unknowing''
> business is about.  You can't modify the source code without seeing a
> copyright notice which either includes or points you at the license
> terms.

I agree fully that someone who looks at GNU code and sees the copyright
notice is responsible for respecting that copyright.

However, a huge portion of code use and reuse under UNIX doesn't involve
source code at all. A GNU program installs a library; someone sees the
library and uses it or, in the worst case, doesn't even know he's using
the library at all. When you install gcc, does it send mail to all your
users warning them that, unlike most UNIX compilers, it doesn't produce
freely redistributable output? No.

> Seems to me that once you've been informed of the licensing
> conditions, if you go ahead you implicitly agree to them.

This isn't true when the license is unenforceable.

---Dan