Begin section on non-copyright issues, focusing first on patents.

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Bradley M. Kuhn 2014-03-15 16:30:45 -04:00
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@ -455,6 +455,34 @@ concept behind copyleft, but to actually make it work in the real world, a
true implementation in legal text must exist. The GPL is the primary
implementation of copyleft in copyright licensing language.
\subsection{Software and Non-Copyright Legal Regimes}
\label{software-and-non-copyright}
The use, modification and distribution of software, like many endeavors,
simultaneously interacts with multiple different legal regimes. As was noted
early via footnotes, copyright is merely the \textit{most common way} to
restrict users' rights to copy, share, modify and/or redistribute software.
However, proprietary software licenses typically use every mechanism
available to subjugate users. For example:
\begin{itemize}
\item Unfortunately, despite much effort by many in the software freedom
community to end patents that read on software (i.e., patents on
computational ideas), they still ultimately exist. As such, a software
program might otherwise be seemly unrestricted, but a patent might read on
the software and ruin everything for its users.\footnote{See
\S\S~\ref{gpl-implied-patent-grant},~\ref{GPLs7},~\ref{GPLv3s11} for more
discussion on how the patent system interacts with copyleft, and read
Richard M.~Stallman's essay,
\href{http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/richard-stallman-software-patents/}{\textit{Lets
Limit the Effect of Software Patents, Since We Cant Eliminate Them}}
for more information on the problems these patents present to society.}
\item
\subsection{Non-USA Copyright Regimes}
\label{non-usa-copyright}
@ -1463,6 +1491,7 @@ only rarely a better option than complying via \S 3(a).
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\chapter{GPL's Implied Patent Grant}
\label{gpl-implied-patent-grant}
We digress again briefly from our section-by-section consideration of GPLv2
to consider the interaction between the terms of GPL and patent law. The
@ -1859,7 +1888,7 @@ So end the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License.
\section{GPLv3 \S 10: Explicit Downstream License}
\section{GPLv3 \S 11: Explicit Patent Licensing}
\label{GPLv3s11}
\section{GPLv3 \S 12: Familiar as GPLv2 \S 7}
\section{GPLv3 \S 13: The Great Affero Compromise}