> And the preamble, not being part of the active portion of the license, has > absolutely *ZERO* bearing. Just as it is not the *intent* of RMS, the FSF or
Wrong (again) The pre-amble is incredibly important as is the intent of the license creator and even more so of the author. When trying to solve a dispute the process starts with the legal equivalent of banging the two parties head together in the hope they see sense. If that fails then the legal wording is considered in detail. Where it is ambiguous the surrounding context is considered in order to understand the probable intent of the case. Finally the stated intent of the author is considered in defence (The doctrine of estoppel), and at least in UK law whether their intent was honest (The doctrine of clean hands) Legal disputes almost always end up about the things that are not clear (if they were clear one side would shut up and put up) so the preambles and statements are terribly important when this occurs, along with the context and history. Thus for example the fact Linus has said he believes what Tivo does is ok means he can no longer sue Tivo for doing it. They are relying on his promise. Alan - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/