[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Richard Kenner) writes: > > Despite the lack of a relationship with anyone at FSF, many people do > > download GPL software an use it, in accord with the license. They have > > a legal right to use the software. > > A license is not between the user of the software and the FSF, but between > the user and who he got it from. My TiVo contains FSF-copyrighted software > and I got a license to use it from TiVo, not the FSF. This is important > to understand! If A obtains software from the FSF and distributes it to > B, who distributes it to C who, in turn, distributes it to D, there is > a license between A and the FSF, B and C, C and B, and D and C. There > is *not* normally a license between D and the FSF. None of this is > typically important to the end user, but that is the legal structure.
>From GPLv2, similar wording in GPLv3, emphasis added by me: 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license *from the original licensor* to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions.
