Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758680AbXFOXMx (ORCPT ); Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:12:53 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1755422AbXFOXMq (ORCPT ); Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:12:46 -0400 Received: from outpipe-village-512-1.bc.nu ([81.2.110.250]:37869 "EHLO the-village.bc.nu" rhost-flags-OK-FAIL-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755167AbXFOXMp (ORCPT ); Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:12:45 -0400 Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:16:56 +0100 From: Alan Cox To: Daniel Hazelton Cc: Alexandre Oliva , "Jesper Juhl" , "Chris Friesen" , "Ingo Molnar" , "Linus Torvalds" , "Greg KH" , "debian developer" , david@lang.hm, "Tarkan Erimer" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, "Andrew Morton" Subject: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3 Message-ID: <20070616001656.2eecd462@the-village.bc.nu> In-Reply-To: <200706151715.55218.dhazelton@enter.net> References: <466A3EC6.6030706@netone.net.tr> <200706150308.20148.dhazelton@enter.net> <200706151715.55218.dhazelton@enter.net> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 2.9.1 (GTK+ 2.10.8; i386-redhat-linux-gnu) Organization: Red Hat UK Cyf., Amberley Place, 107-111 Peascod Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1TE, Y Deyrnas Gyfunol. Cofrestrwyd yng Nghymru a Lloegr o'r rhif cofrestru 3798903 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1428 Lines: 33 > And the preamble, not being part of the active portion of the license, has > absolutely *ZERO* bearing. Just as it is not the *intent* of RMS, the FSF or Wrong (again) The pre-amble is incredibly important as is the intent of the license creator and even more so of the author. When trying to solve a dispute the process starts with the legal equivalent of banging the two parties head together in the hope they see sense. If that fails then the legal wording is considered in detail. Where it is ambiguous the surrounding context is considered in order to understand the probable intent of the case. Finally the stated intent of the author is considered in defence (The doctrine of estoppel), and at least in UK law whether their intent was honest (The doctrine of clean hands) Legal disputes almost always end up about the things that are not clear (if they were clear one side would shut up and put up) so the preambles and statements are terribly important when this occurs, along with the context and history. Thus for example the fact Linus has said he believes what Tivo does is ok means he can no longer sue Tivo for doing it. They are relying on his promise. Alan - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/