Florian Weimer wrote: > For another example, look at copyleft licenses in general. The > copyright holder detests the current state of copyright law and tries > to work around it, using copyright law itself to implement something > which goes (at first glance) directly against the spirit of copyright > law. Some people even argue that this attempt at legislation violates > the US Constitution. You may not have noticed, but you are not the > only person who advocates the Dictator Test. 8-)
Such copyleft clauses would not fail the proposed test. Without the license, you cannot distribute at all; with the license, you may distribute if you meet certain conditions (like distributing source and granting the same freedoms); no freedoms you had were taken away. Those who claim that copyleft licenses violate copyright law or the Constitution are simply upset about the terms some copyright holders choose to permit distribution under; nevertheless, allowing distribution only when providing source and distributing under the same license is no less legally sound than allowing distribution only when royalties are paid for each copy. (IANAL.) - Josh Triplett
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