On Mon, Apr 08, 2013 at 09:38:26AM +0100, Gervase Markham wrote:
I think one question about whether you can even have a rules-based
approach depends on whether there are bright lines you can draw along.
The speed of a vehicle (at speeds a long way from the speed of light :-)
is an ascertainable fact; challenges to prosecutions often arise based
on the quality or otherwise of that ascertaining, but it is a fact.
Similarly, the concept of "file" is still with us in computing and so an
MPL file-level copyleft can be rules-based.
If a strong copyleft is to be rules-based, where are the bright lines?
Are we not back at the argument about where the boundaries of an
application lie?
Maybe you could combine the two approaches somehow.
Ordinarily you'd have rules-based weak copyleft, but the developer can
take some affirmative step to change the effect to standards-based
strong copyleft.
- RF