The Difference Between EULAs and Open Source Licenses
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 25th Sep 2009 14:01 UTC
Legal In France, the GPL has scored yet another major win in court. What makes this infringements case special is that it was filed not by the developers of the infringed-upon code, but by users, demonstrating that they, too, can successfully enforce the GPL. Since I noted on a few threads here on OSNews that a lot of people still fail to grasp the difference between an open source license and an EULA, I figured I'd take this opportunity to explain the difference one more time - using hand-crafted diagrams!
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RE: Innacurate and flamebait
by Thom_Holwerda on Mon 28th Sep 2009 12:45 UTC in reply to "Innacurate and flamebait"
Thom_Holwerda
Member since:
2005-06-29

Something can be a restriction and a protection at the same time.

Reply Parent Score: 1

spiderman Member since:
2008-10-23

If so, then it is not only a restriction, as it would be also a protection. Your sentence in the article is therefore inaccurate.

By that logic, the requirement to distribute the code with BSD licensed software can only be seen as a restriction when looked upon from the perspective of more permissive proprietary licensed that don't require you to distribute the code.
That would ignore completely the point of the requirement and exposes your uninformed opinion that there is no point in distributing source code (as it was ONLY a restriction). No, it is not ONLY a restriction and can not be seen ONLY as a restriction, OBVIOUSLY. Most people would think that not having the source code is quite a bigger restriction than not having to distribute it.

And, as I said, it is flame bait, too.
It was totally unnecessary. You article should stick to differences between EULA and OSS licences. Or if you have to talk the differences between the GPL and the BSD, do it factually.

Reply Parent Score: 2

google_ninja Member since:
2006-02-05

All copyright restrictions are protections to someone. The BSD license has no protections/restrictions, the GPL does.

Reply Parent Score: 2

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BallmerKnowsBest Member since:
2008-06-02

So if it's something that you're in favor of, then it's a protection. And if it's something that you're opposed to, then it's a restriction? Gotcha.

Reply Parent Score: 2

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