News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before. Parent comment

Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before by thristian on Saturday September 28, 2013 @08:08PM (#6463572)
Have you read the GPL? It uses fairly simple language, no legal jargon, and it's a lot shorter than some EULAs I've seen. I imagine a lot of people just mentally file it under 'legalese' and skip over it, but even a "simplified" GPL wouldn't prevent that.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before by forrestthewoods on Saturday September 28, 2013 @08:23PM (#6463611)
There are and continue to be wild disagreements over GPL and what it means. Is linking against a DLL considered a derived work? It depends on who you ask! Stallman thinks yes. Others think no.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before by thristian on Saturday September 28, 2013 @09:02PM (#6463688)
Isn't that a vagueness in copyright law itself? You could avoid the vagueness by making the GPL stricter and more explicit, but that seems like the direct opposite of 'simplification'.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before by Nursie on Saturday September 28, 2013 @09:12PM (#6463705)
It tends to be considered so by the people that write the GPL'd software. That's why the LGPL exists.

If you're looking for a way to use someone's software components against their wishes, and just looking for a legal way of doing so, then you may be right.

If you actually want to respect the wishes of the author OTOH...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before by dllthomas on Sunday September 29, 2013 @12:39AM (#6464151)
Making it more something regular people can read and understand would mean more arguments by lawyers (real and wannabe) over how far bits of it can be stretched.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before by thejteam on Saturday September 28, 2013 @09:03PM (#6463689)
I agree that it is better than many EULAs, but that doesn't make it simple. At roughly 5000 words with a reading ease grade level of about 15(Flesch-Kincaid) it is not a document for the average person.

Doesn't even mean I disagree with most of the license, but it is unreasonable to expect people to understand it.

[ Parent | on HN ]