To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
This is all well and good, but one important notice, everyone:
An EULA is NOT a contract. A copyright licence, including the GPL, is NOT a contract.
Clicking the "accept" button has ZERO legal value. The licence only informs you of what you can legally do. In case of doubt, you can do, pretty much, NOTHING.
From the GPL-v2 text:
"5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it."
Read more from Groklaw:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20031214210634851&query=li...
BTW, the entry for "EULA" in Wikipedia seems to imply otherwise, but I think Groklaw and Eben Moglen, the Free Software Foundation's attorney are better sources.




Member since:
2005-07-02
You seem a bit confused. No one is excusing piracy as a form of breach of contract. Piracy (i.e. violation of copyright) *is* a crime, while breaching a contract is *not* a crime - though you can get sued if you do.
BTW, some contracts are illegal, i.e. they ask for conditions that contravene the law (i.e. a tenancy agreement that would only let you caucasian roommates). You wouldn't get sued for breaching such a contract. That said, you *should* always have a lawyer look at a contract before you sign it, as you can find yourself at a serious disadvantage if you don't.
This is also different from EULAs. Most EULAs wouldn't stand the test of the courts, because the conditions they impose go against elements of contract law in many jurisdictions. Not that this is relevant to the current topic, as the cease-and-desist letter concerned a violation of copyright (redistributing the beta without consent), *not* a breach of the EULA.