> -----Original Message-----
> From: MIME :marcus at ira.uka.de > Sent: Friday, October 29, 1999 10:33 AM
> To: squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
> % for distribution under the GNU License and Aladdin Free > Public License.

Red flag -- these licenses don't work well together.  It is VERY difficult in reality (if a legal situation came up) to reconcile the requirements of the two.

> So part 2b) of the GPL (the famous "GPL Virus") should be no problem: 

Not no problem, but not necessarily unworkable.  We would have to be fairly careful.  It may be necessary to distribute the fonts separately, with their own license language, files and stuff, and then have each user import it to avoid the virus.

> Strange. We should ask Aladdin (L. Peter Deutsch) or URW under which
> license the fonts really are.

Or better yet, see if we can get URW to give us a Squeak-ing license!

One of my favorite things to do as an attorney when a client comes asking about hypertechnical ways to "get around" IP, is simply to suggest, "why don't you ask them if you can have permission to do that?"  This isn't always the right advice, but it often is.  Consent is the only 100% absolute defense in this business -- if you prove consent, you always, always win.  The owner of a copyright can do what he wants, and if he is willing to give a license under the Squeak terms, we can incorporate it without having to deal with RMS, Peter or anyone.

Note that there are presently pending cases where products are being withheld because of GNU licensing conflicts.  Let's be careful.  RMS designed GNU so that the world would be GNU only, and recent activity seems to suggest he meant it.  I agree that GNU can be circumvented in a manner favorable to what we want to do (and the only thing we can do): distribute Squeak under the terms of the Squeak license, but someone ought to be able to say, "yes" to the straightforward question, and not an indirect basis for a legal argument, so we don't actually have to lawyer this thing to get to an answer.