Re: license issue: calling a GPLv2 library

[David Kastrup]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <ams@gnu.org> writes:

>    > The author has no right to restrict a users freedom to use,
>    > modify, improve and distribute software.
>
>    Oh, he certainly has that right in almost every country.  That's
>    what the Berne convention is about.
>
> Laws and conventions do not make rights.

I guess we have to differ here.  It is _exactly_ laws and conventions
that make rights.  If you take away those, you are left with
"everything is right what you can get away with".  But that does not
require spelling out, and thus is not worthwhile in itself.

> There are many laws and convenctions that stomp our rights, like the
> DMCA and the EUCD.

They can't stomp rights that have not been guaranteed by other laws
and conventions previously.

> He might have the legal laws backing him up, but he does not have
> any moral or ethical right to do so.

Morals are most certainly based rather directly on conventions.  And
ethics, while usually derived more indirectly, still depend on
conventional thought models.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum