% GPL's Handling of Non-Copyright Systems

% Bradley M. Kuhn

% Tuesday 9 May 2017

# Non-Copyright Systems

+ Patents, NDAs, & other agreements often impact software.

+ GPL is essentially a copyright license.

     - so, how does GPL handle these systems?

+ As always, GPL has **conditional** permissions.

     - some such conditions relate to these other legal regimes.

+ Compliance for these is much more legalistic than technical.

# GPLv2§7

<span class="fitonslide">

<p>[GPLv2&sect;]7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent

infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),

conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or

otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not

excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot

distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this

License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you

may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent

license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by

all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then

the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to

refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

</p>

</span>

# GPLv3 Improvements

+ GPLv3 expands GPLv2§7 into multiple sections.

+ Creates detailed rules.

      - an improvement

      - legal compliance analysis is less complicated.

# Staffing Question

+ In complex environments, both lawyers & developers should analyze

  compliance obligations.

+ Simple environments (i.e., no actual proprietary components in product),

  less expertise & cross-disciplinary staff time needed.

# More Info / Talk License

<img align="right" src="cc-by-sa-4-0_88x31.png" />

+ Specific Sections of Copyleft Guide relating to these topics:

      - [GPLv2 §7: “Give Software Liberty or Give It Death!”](https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidech8.html#x11-540007.4)

      - [GPLv3 §10: Explicit Downstream License](https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidech10.html#x13-880009.13)

      - [GPLv3 §11: Explicit Patent Licensing](https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidech10.html#x13-890009.14)

      - [GPLv3 §12: Familiar as GPLv2 §7](https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidech10.html#x13-920009.15)

<span class="fitonslide">

<p>Presentation and slides are: Copyright &copy; Bradley M. Kuhn (2008&ndash;2011, 2015, 2017), Karen M. Sandler (2017), and are licensed under the <a rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License</a>. </p>

</span>