On Mon, Jul 12, 2004 at 05:25:11PM +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote: > Mahesh T. Pai wrote: > >Matthew Garrett said on Mon, Jul 12, 2004 at 11:02:34AM +0100,: > > > Nathaneal Nerode wrote: > > > >If the user is really doing stuff privately -- just for himself! -- and > > > >happens to talk about it, he certainly shouldn't be forced to distribute > > > >it > > > >before he's ready! This is no issue at all. > > > Am I reading a different license here? The copy of the QPL at > > > http://www.trolltech.com/licenses/qpl.html says: > > <snip> > > >Something can be distributed without making the whole thing available > >to the public. > > Yes. I know. But read the context - Nathaneal said "If the user is > really doing stuff privately -- just for himself! -- and happens to talk > about it, he certainly shouldn't be forced to distribute it before he's > ready! This is no issue at all.". The QPL does not oblige you to do > anything if "the user is really doing stuff privately". It *only* comes > into play when the user wants to distribute.
But what is distribution? I would contend that it is any time a copy is made which would (by default) be disallowed by straight copyright law[1]. Hence, distributing my modified version of QFoo to the machines in my server farm would result in my being required to send a copy to the original author if I happened to blog about it and he read it. Worse still is the case where I lose the source to the modifications at some later stage. I cannot comply with the original author's request; am I then to be sued for copyright infringement because of that? I pulled my modified QFoo off my servers ages ago; nevertheless, distribution occured, and the original author is within his rights under the licence to require me to provide my modifications. Another issue that just popped into my head -- can *every* "original author" request a copy of my changes? If the Linux kernel was QPL, could I be required to send thousands of copies of my software to every person who had a copyright interest in the Linux kernel? Starts to sound like a *very* onerous restriction to me. - Matt
