[aur-general] Notification of GPL violation

[Yangjun Wang]

On 5/21/21 7:48 PM, Manhong Dai via aur-general wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2021-05-21 at 19:34 +0200, Ralf Mardorf via aur-general wrote:
>> On Fri, 21 May 2021 12:37:05 -0400, Manhong Dai wrote:
>>> I still think even 'sensible modifications' is still a modification,
>>> especially if the original author has an issue with it.
>> Yesno ;)!  There are GPL vs BSD license disputes for no good reasons.
>> How Pooterish can we go? As long as the world revolves around us, we
>> are
>> altruistic, but as soon as it isn't like that, nobody should expect
>> that we continue acting altruistic? IOW should become 'free'
>> and/or 'altruistic' just (an) empty word(s)? A 'sensible modification'
>> is a 'sensible modification', it shouldn't be overrated.
> Good point! We do already have plenty of 'open source/free' licenses to
> pick from.
>
> I also think we can agree that the original programmer/owner must have
> picked a particular license for a reason. Obviously, the original
> programmer/owner has a different understanding about 'sensible
> modification' here.

Not a lawyer here, but here is my opinion on the matter.

I do not remember the GPL license stating anything about "sensible 
modifications", and while I do partly understand how some people are not 
happy about the certain clauses in some of these licenses, it is 
important to remember that these licenses have legal effects, while 
individual opinions on what modifications are "sensible" and what are 
not do not have any legal effect in most cases. Personal opinions for or 
against the chosen license do not excuse anyone from disobeying the 
license as long as the license applies (of which the details may vary 
depending on the country), in the same way "I hate person X" is in not 
an (legally) accepted reason for killing the particular person in most 
cases, although this comparison might be a bit extreme.

Basically, if you have anything against the license of a software, write 
to the author about it or do not use the software. Period.

> That being said, I always hope AUR can have as little conflicts like
> this as possible, so I can continuously benefit from Arch Linux.
>
> Best,
> Manhong