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Re: RFH: GPLv3
kenner@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner) writes:
> > Despite the lack of a relationship with anyone at FSF, many people do
> > download GPL software an use it, in accord with the license. They have
> > a legal right to use the software.
>
> A license is not between the user of the software and the FSF, but between
> the user and who he got it from. My TiVo contains FSF-copyrighted software
> and I got a license to use it from TiVo, not the FSF. This is important
> to understand! If A obtains software from the FSF and distributes it to
> B, who distributes it to C who, in turn, distributes it to D, there is
> a license between A and the FSF, B and C, C and B, and D and C. There
> is *not* normally a license between D and the FSF. None of this is
> typically important to the end user, but that is the legal structure.
>From GPLv2, similar wording in GPLv3, emphasis added by me:
6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
Program), the recipient automatically receives a license *from the
original licensor* to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
these terms and conditions.