* Sean Kellogg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [040712 21:15]: > > While the imagery of a computer programmer sitting on a lonely desert > > isle hacking away with their solar powered computer, drinking > > coconuts, and recieving messages in bottles might be silly, the rights > > that such a gedanken is protecting are anything but. > Not to argue against the intent of the Desert Island Test, but at least in > the > United States, such a freedom is provided by the law/courts, not the license.
That might be the case. There might even be similar things in most other jurisdictions. But that only shows that the desert-island-test is only a very simple image. Just imagine you are alone on an island and there is some ship coming along every week offering you to bring a disc to the mainland for only some thousend dollars. (And assume furthermore you have the money for one sending). Or even imagine you are in some rural area in some less developed country where you can receive things via some sat-antenna, but to get things to the outer world you either have to travel some months (impractical) or accept a favor from some local criminal organisation, that you do not want to have anything to do with but that offers you daily to carry things to the next post office and swears it will not want anything in return for it. (show me the court you are sure to rule that impractical) > If the license require sending the modifications back upstream, and sending > is > impossible for reasons including, but not limited to, residence on a deserted > island without means of communication, the doctrine of > impossibility/impracticability comes in to play. So when using some bus line requires a ticket, but it is impossible to get one (one has no money), is one allowed to use it for free? If there was some old booth on this desert island, with some basket of toys and a sign telling you might get one of the toys when you phone the company and saying its advertising theme. (And some phone on this booth, but the phone-lines from the island have rotten away years ago), are you then allowed to take a toy for free, because the requested task is clearly impossible? Hochachtungsvoll, Bernhard R. Link -- Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.