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Rewrite material describing GPLv3§3 into tutorial text.

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Bradley M. Kuhn 2014-03-20 09:41:54 -04:00
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@ -2661,39 +2661,28 @@ since what the DMCA calls ``circumvention'' is simply ``modifying the
software'' under the GPL, GPLv3 must disclaim such anti-circumvention
provisions are not applicable to the GPLv3'd software.
In the first
paragraph we have replaced the reference to the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, a United States statute, with a corresponding international legal
reference to anticircumvention laws enacted pursuant to the 1996 WIPO treaty
and any similar laws. Lawyers outside the United States have worried that a
United States statutory reference could be read as indicating a choice for
application of United States law to the license as a whole, which of course
was not our intention. Further research has caused us to doubt the view that
only one or the other paragraph of section 3 will typically be effective in a
country that has enacted an anticircumvention law. Moreover, we believe that
several national anticircumvention laws have been or will be structured more
similarly to the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act than to the counterpart provisions of the European Union
Copyright Directive.
First, GPLv3\S3\P1 declares that no GPL'd program is part of an effective
technological protection measure, regardless of what the program does. Early
drafts of GPLv3\S3\P1 referred directly to the DMCA, but the final version
instead includes instead an international legal reference to
anticircumvention laws enacted pursuant to the 1996 WIPO treaty and any
similar laws. Lawyers outside the USA worried that a USA statutory reference
could be read as indicating a choice for application of USA law to the
license as a whole. While the FSF did not necessarily agree with that view,
the FSF decided anyway to refer to the WIPO treaty rather than DMCA, since
several national anticircumvention laws were (or will likely be) structured
more similarly to the anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA in their
implementation of WIPO\@. Furthermore, the addition of ``or similar laws''
provides an appropriate catch-all.
The second paragraph of section 3 declares that no GPL'd program is part of
an effective technological protection measure, regardless of what the program
does. Ill-advised legislation in the United States and other countries has
prohibited circumvention of such technological measures. If a covered work is
distributed as part of a system for generating or accessing certain data, the
effect of this paragraph is to prevent someone from claiming that some other
GPL'd program that accesses the same data is an illegal circumvention.
we now state more precisely that a conveying party waives the power to forbid
circumvention of technological measures only to the extent that such
circumvention is accomplished through the exercise of GPL rights in the
conveyed work. We have made two changes in the disclaimer of intention
regarding limitations on the design and use of the work. First, we make clear
that the referenced ``legal rights'' are specifically rights arising under
anticircumvention law. Second, we now refer to the conveying party's rights
in addition to third party rights, as in some cases the conveying party will
also be the party legally empowered to enforce or invoke rights arising under
anticircumvention law.
Furthermore, GPLv3\S3\P2 states precisely that a conveying party waives the
power to forbid circumvention of technological measures only to the extent
that such circumvention is accomplished through the exercise of GPL rights in
the conveyed work. GPLv3\S3\P2 makes clear that the referenced ``legal
rights'' are specifically rights arising under anticircumvention law. and
refers to both the conveying party's rights and to third party rights, as in
some cases the conveying party will also be the party legally empowered to
enforce or invoke rights arising under anticircumvention law.
% FIXME: this needs rewritten