Re: Circumventing the GPL

[John Hasler]

Hyman writes:
> The manufacturer sells copies of software to a reseller, in full
> compliance with the GPL, shipping binaries and source. He has not sold
> any "rights". The reseller has not bought any "rights".

You wrote that the manufacturer had been paid by the reseller for agreeing
not to make source available to anyone but the reseller, leaving the
reseller, who has a license (the GPL), the only one free to distribute
source.  That is the sale of a right by the manufacturer to the reseller.

> He may do only what copyright law allows - he may choose to distribute
> under the GPL, or he may choose to distribute under first sale.

He owns part of the copyright (the right to distribute source).
-- 
John Hasler 
john@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA