* Brian M. Hunt: > I was contemplating the conundrum of open source digital rights management, > and would like some feedback. If someone were to write digital rights > software, eg. for downloading from iTunes, could they license it under a free > software license like the GPL, with an added clause: > > "If the Program is designed to uphold digital rights management pursuant to > the distribution of copyrighted material, any modification to the Program to > undermine the terms of distribution for that copyright will violate this > license. All rights to publish, redistribute, and use the modified Program > are revoked upon violation of this clause. Derivative works may not modify > this license so as to remove this clause."
Why would you want to implement such a thing? An advisory DRM system can be implemented in free software (this has already been done, see Linux module loading and GCC license checking), and it's clearly more desirable than a mandatory system. If the source code is open in the sense that is non-obfuscated, almost anybody can switch of the DRM part (or turn into something that just alerts the user before proceeding). This means that the license probably wouldn't save you from liability for contributory infringement under the INDUCE act (or one of its offsprings).
