Re: [ANNOUNCE] GIT 1.5.4

David Kastrup writes:

Johannes Schindelin [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

On Thu, 7 Feb 2008, Luciano Rocha wrote:

quoted

On Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 11:42:11PM +0100, Steffen Prohaska wrote:

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 On Feb 2, 2008, at 5:34 AM, Junio C Hamano wrote:

quoted

The latest feature release GIT 1.5.4 is available at the usual
places:

 The msysgit setup is available at:

   http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/

Why do I have to accept the GPL to install msysgit?

Because that's the only license you have to use git.

Uh no.  The right to use git is "fair use": if you have acquired a copy
of a copyrighted work through a legal channel, you have prima facie a
certain set of rights.  Conventional software "licenses" try to make you
give up many of these rights which is why the recipient needs to agree
to those licenses (which are actually contracts rather than licenses).

The concept of "fair use" of copyrighted works does not exist (per se)
in Europe, Japan, or a number of other countries.  The USA may be the
only place to have that doctrine.

British courts, for instance, have held that copying a program into
RAM for the purposes of executing it is a right reserved under
copyright law.  In the US, 17 USC 117(c) and (d) were added after a
court held (in MAI Sys. Corp. v. Peak Computer) that a computer repair
company violated copyright of software that automatically started on a
computer it was asked to repair -- by simply allowing the computer to
boot and execute that program automatically.

As the GPL itself notes, you are not required to accept it, but
nothing else grants you the right to perform actions reserved to
copyright holders with respect to the work.  Asking end users to
accept the GPL has good effect in countries besides the US, and has no
obvious harm in the US.

Michael Poole

Michael Poole [off-list ref] writes:

British courts, for instance, have held that copying a program into
RAM for the purposes of executing it is a right reserved under
copyright law.  In the US, 17 USC 117(c) and (d) were added after a
court held (in MAI Sys. Corp. v. Peak Computer) that a computer repair
company violated copyright of software that automatically started on a
computer it was asked to repair -- by simply allowing the computer to
boot and execute that program automatically.

As the GPL itself notes, you are not required to accept it, but
nothing else grants you the right to perform actions reserved to
copyright holders with respect to the work.

I think that most countries will grant some right to the purchaser of a
physical copy of copyrighted material.  For example, I doubt there are
countries where it is prohibited to read a book you have bought (via a
channel authorized by the copyright holder) when it contains no explicit
license granting you the right to read it.

-- 
David Kastrup