diff --git a/compliance-guide.tex b/compliance-guide.tex index 9ef9b26ae60e561a91372425697a9bc5f24a03dc..1983d810b29f4d1f0aa31207c43e75979aacbc42 100644 --- a/compliance-guide.tex +++ b/compliance-guide.tex @@ -52,21 +52,20 @@ post-violation responses to the concerns of copyright holders. \chapter{Background} -% FIXME-URGENT: integrate and correct - -Copyright law grants exclusive rights to authors. The ``preclusive'' use of -copyleft to protect users’ rights still leaves the authors, as copyright -holders, or their agents in the sole position of enforcers or protectors of -their users’ rights. Actions for copyright infringement are the ultimate -legal mechanism for enforcement, and copyright law allows only a copyright -holder or her agent to bring an action for infringement. There also exist -community efforts at compliance that help copyright holders in enforcement of -their rights, but only the copyright holders or their legal representatives -can actually initiate enforcement proceedings in the legal system. - -%FIXME-URGENT: END - -Early GPL enforcement efforts began soon after the GPL was written by +Copyright law grants exclusive rights to authors. Authors who chose copyleft +seek to protect the freedom of users and developers to copy, share, modify +and redistribute the software. However, copyleft is ultimately implemented +through copyright, and the GPL is primarily and by default a copyright +license. (See \S~\ref{explaining-copyright} for more about the interaction +between copyright and copyleft.) Copyright law grants an unnatural exclusive +control to copyright holders regarding copyright-controlled permissions +related to the work. Therefore, copyright holders (or their agents) are the +ultimately the sole authorities to enforce copyleft and protect the rights of +users. Actions for copyright infringement are the ultimate legal mechanism +for enforcement. Therefore, copyright holders, or collaborative groups of +copyright holders, have historically been the actors in GPL enforcement. + +The earliest of these efforts began soon after the GPL was written by Richard M.~Stallman (RMS) in 1989, and consisted of informal community efforts, often in public Usenet discussions.\footnote{One example is the public outcry over NeXT's attempt to make the Objective-C front-end to GCC