[MPlayer-G2-dev] dual licensing try 2

[rsnel at cube.dyndns.org]

On Mon, Feb 23, 2004 at 05:18:01PM +0100, Gabucino wrote:
> rsnel at cube.dyndns.org wrote:
> > > It helps the developers.
> > It helps the developers doing bad things
> It helps the developers avoiding potentially harmful and time+money consuming
> lawsuits.
I understand your point. I thought you meant the developers of e.g.
KiSS.

> > Suppose MPlayer is licensed to some 'pay-per-view' company, and that
> > company is given the right to distribute modified versions of MPlayer
> > to their users without giving the right to distribute modified versions
> So what? They already do/can do it right now! MPlayer's source is open,
> and everyone feels free to steal, in case you haven't noticed.
If something is ethically and legally wrong (using MPlayer code for nefarious
purposes and thereby infringing on copyright) then it won't become
ethically right by making it legally right. Dual-licensing doesn't
solve the ethical problem; it makes the ethical problem unsolvable (it can't
even be solved through legal means anymore).

> Would _you_ support a lawsuit?
Well, I am not a lawyer, so I don't know what it takes to take such a
case to court, and what it takes to convince a judge that code was
copied while in non-compliance with the license and therefore
the company (e.g. KiSS) is guilty of copyright infringement. Maybe we
should ask for legal counsel on the 'donations page'... 

(And, what Rich just said, we could assign copyright to the FSF, then
they will fight the legal battles)

Greetings,

Rik.

-- 
Nothing is ever a total loss; it can always serve as a bad example.