@@ -718,96 +718,130 @@ to users, but they do not go to any effort to uphold that software freedom
for users. The so-called ``downstream'' (those who receive the software and
then build new things based on that software) can restrict the software and
distribute further.
The GNU's Not Unix (``GNU'') project, which Richard M.~Stallman (``RMS'')
founded in 1984 to make a complete Unix-compatible operating system
implementation that assured software freedom for all. However, RMS saw that
using a license that gave but did not assure software freedom would be
counter to the goals of the GNU project. RMS invented ``copyleft'' as an
answer to that problem, and began using various copyleft licenses for the
early GNU project programs\footnote{RMS writes more fully about this topic in
his essay entitled simply
\href{http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html}{\textit{The GNU Project}.
For those who want to hear the story in his own voice,
\href{http://audio-video.gnu.org/audio/}{speech recordings} of his talk,
\textit{The Free Software Movement and the GNU/Linux Operating System}
are also widely available}.
\section{Proto-GPLs And Their Impact}
The earliest copyleft licenses were specific to various GNU programs. For
example, \href{http://www.free-soft.org/gpl_history/emacs_gpl.html}{The Emacs
General Public License} was likely the first copyleft license ever
published. Interesting to note that even this earliest copyleft license
contains a version of the well-known GPL copyleft clause:
\begin{quotation}
You may modify your copy or copies of GNU Emacs \ldots provided that you also
\ldots cause the whole of any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is a derivative of GNU Emacs or any part
thereof, to be licensed at no charge to all third parties on terms identical
to those contained in this License Agreement.
\end{quotation}
This simply stated clause is the fundamental innovation of copyleft.
Specifically, copyleft \textit{uses} the copyright holders' controls on
permission to modify the work to add a conditional requirement. Namely,
downstream users may only have permission to modify the work if they pass
along the same permissions on the modified version that came originally to
them.
These original program-specific proto-GPLs give an interesting window into
the central ideas and development of copyleft. In particular, reviewing them
shows how the text of the GPL we know has evolved to address more of the
issues discussed earlier in \S~\ref{software-and-non-copyright}.
\section{The GNU General Public License, Version 1}
In January 1989, the FSF announced that the GPL had been converted into a
``subroutine'' that could be reused not just for all FSF-copyrighted
programs, but also by anyone else. As the FSF claimed in its announcement of
the GPLv1\footnote{The announcement of GPLv1 was published in the
\href{http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull6.html#SEC8}{GNU's Bulletin, vol. 1
no. 6, January, 1989}. Thanks very much to Andy Tai for his
\href{http://www.free-soft.org/gpl_history/}{consolidation of research on
the history of the pre-v1 GPL's.}:
To make it easier to copyleft programs, we have been improving on the
legalbol architecture of the General Public License to produce a new version
that serves as a general-purpose subroutine: it can apply to any program
without modification, no matter who is publishing it.
This, like many inventive ideas, seems somewhat obvious in retrospect. But,
the FSF had some bright people and access to good lawyers when it started.
It took almost five years from the first copyleft licenses to get to a
generalized, reusable GPLv1. In the context and mindset of the 1980s, this
is not surprising. The idea of reusable licensing infrastructure was not
only uncommon, it was virtually nonexistent! Even the early BSD licenses
were simply copied and rewritten slightly for each new use\footnote{It
remains an interesting accident of history that the early BSD problematic
``advertising clause'' (discussion of which is somewhat beyond the scope of
this tutorial) lives on into current day, simply because while the
University of California at Berkeley gave unilateral permission to remove
the clause from \textit{its} copyrighted works, others who adapted the BSD
license with their own names in place of UC-Berkeley's never have.}. The
GPLv1's innovation of reuable licensing infrastructure, an obvious fact
today, was indeed a novel invention for its day\footnote{We're all just
grateful that the FSF also opposes business method patents, since the FSF's
patent on a ``method for reusable licensing infrastructure'' would have
not expired until 2006!}.
\section{The GNU General Public License, Version 2}
\section{The GNU General Public License, Version 3}
\section{The Innovation of Optional ``Or Any Later'' Version}
\section{Complexities of Two Simultaneously Popular Copylefts}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\chapter{GPLv2: Running Software and Verbatim Copying}
\label{run-and-verbatim}
This chapter begins the deep discussion of the details of the terms of
GPLv2\@. In this chapter, we consider the first two sections: GPLv2 \S\S
0--2. These are the straightforward sections of the GPL that define the
simplest rights that the user receives.
\section{GPLv2 \S 0: Freedom to Run}
\label{GPLs0}
\S 0, the opening section of GPLv2, sets forth that the work is governed by
copyright law. It specifically points out that it is the ``copyright
holder'' who decides if a work is licensed under its terms and explains
how the copyright holder might indicate this fact.
A bit more subtly, \S 0 makes an inference that copyright law is the only
system under which it is governed. Specifically, it states:
\begin{quote}
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
covered by this License; they are outside its scope.
\end{quote}
In essence, the license governs \emph{only} those activities, and all other
activities are unrestricted, provided that no other agreements trump GPLv2
(which they cannot; see Sections~\ref{GPLs6} and~\ref{GPLs7}). This is
very important, because the Free Software community heavily supports
users' rights to ``fair use'' and ``unregulated use'' of copyrighted
material. GPLv2 asserts through this clause that it supports users' rights
to fair and unregulated uses.
Fair use of copyrighted material is an established legal doctrine that
permits certain activities. Discussion of the various types of fair
use activity are beyond the scope of this tutorial. However, one
important example of fair use is the right to quote a very few lines
(less than seven or so) and reuse them as you would with or without
licensing restrictions.
Fair use is a doctrine established by the courts or by statute. By