On Thu, 12 Nov 2009, Wouter Verhelst <wou...@debian.org> wrote: > First, network protocols that "do not allow to display" anything are > abundant, since no network protocol "displays" anything -- clients that > use the protocol do. This is true for HTTP, FTP, SMTP, and whatnot.
If you connect to my SMTP server you will see a legal disclaimer (which I claim to be as valid as any that you may see in a .sig). The fact that the vast majority of SMTP clients don't check for such things should have the exact same amount of legal relevance as the fact that most Microsoft customers don't read their EULA. Now in terms of granting rights, if my mail server contained AGPL code and this was displayed in the SMTP protocol then a user could connect to it and discover whether I was using code for which they could demand the source. It would be entirely reasonable and plausible for someone to admire some features that were in a running mail server, connect to port 25 with nc or telnet, see a notification of AGPL code, and then demand a copy of the source. -- russ...@coker.com.au http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Main Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
