Re: [tlug] Apple owns CUPS

["Marty Pauley" <marty.pauley@example.com>]

On 05/08/07, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:
>
> In law, copyright is the property of the
> copyright holder, and AFAICT the analogy of "OK, stop copying
> ... now!" to "OK, give back my PC ... now!" is exact, in law.

Well, your statement is correct for British law, so it is probably
true in other jurisdictions too.  All bare licences can be revoked.

> Now, there is a legal concept called reliance.

That is a type of estoppel in British law.  We can't find any
precedent for this type of estoppel being used with software licences.
 It could work, but the court could also tell you that you were stupid
for relying on it.

But in British law, to revoke a licence the licensor must give notice
to the licensees.  With widely distributed Free Software, it may be
almost impossible to give notice: if I am using the software, and
there is no way for you to tell me to stop, I still have the right to
use it.

-- 
Marty