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donaldr3 - 10 years ago 2014-03-21 22:32:42
donald@copyrighteous.office.fsf.org
remove repeated phrase
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gpl-lgpl.tex
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@@ -3020,194 +3020,193 @@ encapsulate the judicial and administrative principles established over the
 
past three decades in the USA concerning the Magnuson-Moss consumer product
 
definition.  First, it states that doubtful cases are resolved in favor of
 
coverage under the definition.  Second, it indicate that the words ``normally
 
used'' in the consumer product definition refer to a typical or common use of
 
a class of product, and not the status of a particular user or expected or
 
actual uses by a particular user.  Third, it clearly states that the
 
existence of substantial non-consumer uses of a product does not negate a
 
determination that it is a consumer product, unless such non-consumer uses
 
represent the only significant mode of use of that product.
 

	
 
It should be clear from these added sentences that it is the general mode of
 
use of a product that determines objectively whether or not it is a consumer
 
product.  One could not escape the effects of the User Products provisions by
 
labeling what is demonstrably a consumer product in ways that suggest it is
 
``for professionals'', for example.
 

	
 

	
 
\subsubsection{Installation Information}
 

	
 
With the User Products definition complete,  The ``Installation Information''
 
definition uses that to define what those receiving object code inside a User
 
Product must receive.
 

	
 
Installation Information is information that is ``required to install and
 
execute modified versions of a covered work \dots from a modified version of
 
its'' CCS, in the same User Product for which the covered work is conveyed.
 
GPLv3 provides guidance concerning how much information must be provided: it
 
``must suffice to ensure that the continued functioning of the modified
 
object code is in no case prevented or interfered with solely because
 
modification has been made.''  For example, the information provided would be
 
insufficient if it enabled a modified version to run only in a disabled
 
fashion, solely because of the fact of modification (regardless of the actual
 
nature of the modification).  The information need not consist of
 
cryptographic keys; Installation Information may be ``any methods,
 
procedures, authorization keys, or other information''.
 

	
 
Note that GPLv3 does not define ``continued functioning'' further.  However,
 
GPLv3 does provide some additional guidance concerning the scope of
 
GPLv3-compliant action or inaction that distributors of
 
technically-restricted User Products can take with respect to a downstream
 
recipient who replaces the conveyed object code with a modified version.
 
First of all, GPLv3 makes clear that GPLv3 implies no obligation ``to
 
continue to provide support service, warranty, or updates'' for such a work.
 

	
 
Second, most technically-restricted User Products are designed to communicate
 
across networks.  It is important for both users and network providers to
 
know when denial of network access to devices running modified versions
 
becomes a GPL violation.  GPLv3 permits denial of access in two cases: ``when
 
the modification itself materially and adversely affects the operation of the
 
network,'' and when the modification itself ``violates the rules and
 
protocols for communication across the network''.  The second case is
 
deliberately drawn in general terms, and it serves as a foundation for
 
reasonable enforcement policies that respect recipients' right to modify
 
while recognizing the legitimate interests of network providers.
 

	
 
Note that GPLv3 permits the practice of conveying object code in a mode not
 
practically susceptible to modification by any party, such as code burned in
 
ROM or embedded in silicon.  The goal of the Installation Information
 
requirement is to ensure the downstream licensee receives the real right to
 
modify when the device manufacturer or some other party retains that right.
 
Accordingly, GPLv3\S6's ante-penultimate paragraph states that the
 
requirement to provide Installation Information ``does not apply if neither
 
you nor any third party retains the ability to install modified object code
 
on the User Product''.
 

	
 
Finally, GPLv3\S6 makes it clear that there is also no requirement to
 
provide warranty or support for the User Product itself.
 

	
 
\subsection{GPLv3~\S7: Additional Permissions}
 
\label{GPLv3s7}
 

	
 
The GPL is a statement of permissions, some of which have conditions.
 
Additional terms --- terms that supplement those of the GPL --- may come to be
 
placed on, or removed from, GPL-covered code in certain common ways.
 
Copyleft licensing theorists have generally called
 
 those added terms ``additional permissions'' if they grant
 
exceptions from the conditions of the GPL, and ``additional requirements'' if
 
they add conditions to the basic permissions of the GPL\@. The treatment of
 
additional permissions and additional requirements under GPLv3 is necessarily
 
asymmetrical, because they do not raise the same interpretive
 
issues; in particular, additional requirements, if allowed without careful
 
limitation, could transform a GPL'd program into a non-free one.
 

	
 
With these principles in the background, GPLv3~\S7  answers the following
 
questions: 
 
\begin{enumerate}
 
\item How do the presence of additional terms on all or part of a GPL'd program
 
affect users' rights?
 

	
 
\item When and how may a licensee add terms to code being
 
distributed under the GPL? 
 

	
 
\item When may a licensee remove additional terms?
 
\end{enumerate}
 

	
 
Additional permissions present the easier case.  Since the mid-1990s,
 
permissive exceptions often appeared alongside GPLv2 with permissive
 
exceptions to allow combination
 
permissive exceptions often appeared alongside GPLv2 to allow combination
 
with certain non-free code.  Typically, downstream
 
stream recipients could remove those exceptions and operate under pure GPLv2.
 
Similarly, LGPLv2.1 is in essence a permissive variant of GPLv2,
 
and it permits relicensing under the GPL\@.  
 

	
 
These practices are now generalized via GPLv3~\S7.
 
A licensee may remove any additional permission from
 
a covered work, whether it was placed by the original author or by an
 
upstream distributor.  A licensee may also add any kind of additional
 
permission to any part of a work for which the licensee has, or can give,
 
appropriate copyright permission. For example, if the licensee has written
 
that part, the licensee is the copyright holder for that part and can
 
therefore give additional permissions that are applicable to it.
 
Alternatively, the part may have been written by someone else and licensed,
 
with the additional permissions, to that licensee.  Any additional
 
permissions on that part are, in turn, removable by downstream recipients.
 
As GPLv3~\S7\P1 explains, the effect of an additional permission depends on
 
whether the permission applies to the whole work or a part.
 

	
 
% FIXME-LATER: LGPLv3 will have its own section
 

	
 
Indeed, LGPLv3 is itself simply  a list of additional permissions supplementing the
 
terms of GPLv3.  GPLv3\S7 has thus provided the basis for recasting a
 
formally complex license as an elegant set of added terms, without changing
 
any of the fundamental features of the existing LGPL\@.  LGPLv3 is thus  a model for developers wishing to license their works under the
 
GPL with permissive exceptions.  The removability of additional permissions
 
under GPLv3\S7 does not alter any existing behavior of the LGPL since the LGPL
 
has always allowed relicensing under the ordinary GPL\@.
 

	
 
\section{GPLv3~\S7: Understanding License Compatibility}
 
\label{license-compatibility}
 

	
 
A challenge that faced the Free Software community heavily through out the
 
early 2000s was the proliferation of incompatible Free Software licenses.  Of
 
course, the GPL cannot possibly be compatible with all such licenses.
 
However, GPLv3
 
contains provisions that are designed to reduce license incompatibility by
 
making it easier for developers to combine code carrying non-GPL terms with
 
GPL'd code.
 

	
 
This license compatibility issue arises for
 
three reasons.  First, the GPL is a strong copyleft license, requiring
 
modified versions to be distributed under the GPL\@.  Second, the GPL states
 
that no further restrictions may be placed on the rights of recipients.
 
Third, all other software freedom respecting licenses in common use contain certain
 
requirements, many of which are not conditions made by the GPL\@.  Thus, when
 
GPL'd code is modified by combination with code covered by another formal
 
license that specifies other requirements, and that modified code is then
 
distributed to others, the freedom of recipients may be burdened by
 
additional requirements in violation of the GPL.  It can be seen that
 
additional permissions in other licenses do not raise any problems of license
 
compatibility.
 

	
 
GPLv3  took a new approach to the issue of combining GPL'd code with
 
code governed by the terms of other software freedom licenses.  Traditional
 
GPLv2 license compatibility theory (which was not explicitly stated in GPLv2
 
itself, but treated as a license interpretation matter by the FSF) held that GPLv2 allowed such
 
combinations only if the non-GPL licensing terms permitted distribution under
 
the GPL and imposed no restrictions on the code that were not also imposed by
 
the GPL\@.  In practice, the FSF historically supplemented that policy with a structure of
 
exceptions for certain kinds of combinations.
 

	
 
GPLv3~\S7  implements a more explicit policy on license
 
compatibility.  It formalizes the circumstances under which a licensee may
 
release a covered work that includes an added part carrying non-GPL terms. 
 
GPLv3~\S7 distinguish between terms that provide additional permissions, and terms that
 
place additional requirements on the code, relative to the permissions and
 
requirements established by applying the GPL to the code.
 

	
 
As discussed in the previous section of this tutorial, GPLv3~\S7 first and foremost explicitly allows added parts covered by terms with
 
additional permissions to be combined with GPL'd code. This codifies the
 
existing practice of regarding such licensing terms as compatible with the
 
GPL\@. A downstream user of a combined GPL'd work who modifies such an added
 
part may remove the additional permissions, in which case the broader
 
permissions no longer apply to the modified version, and only the terms of
 
the GPL apply to it.
 

	
 
In its treatment of terms that impose additional requirements, GPLv3\S7
 
extends the range of licensing terms with which the GPL is compatible.  An
 
added part carrying additional requirements may be combined with GPL'd code,
 
but only if those requirements belong to an set enumerated in GPLv3\S7. There
 
are, of course,  limits on the acceptable additional requirements, which to
 
ensures that enhanced license compatibility does not
 
defeat the broader software-freedom-defending terms of the GPL\@. Unlike terms that grant
 
additional permissions, terms that impose additional requirements cannot be
 
removed by a downstream user of the combined GPL'd work, because only in the
 
pathological case\footnote{Theoretically, a user could collect copyright
 
  assignment from all known contributors and then do this, but this would
 
  indeed be the pathological case.}  would a user have the right to do so.
 

	
 
% FIXME-LATER: It would be good to have detailed info on each of 7a-f.
 
%              Here's some commented-out text that might be useful for 7a-b
 

	
 
%% Under subsections 7a and 7b, the requirements may include preservation of
 
%% copyright notices, information about the origins of the code or alterations
 
%% of the code, and different warranty disclaimers. Under subsection 7c, the
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