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> The App we provide is not intended for individuals below the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, please do not use the App. This is farcical.

gus_massa 5y ago
Audacity has a GPL2+ license. Is it legal to add an age restriction to the compiled version?
- initplus 5y ago
  Copyright holders have complete freedom to license tehir work under any terms they like. I believe it's actually legal to sell commercial use licenses for GPL'd code for example. Or to switch licenses for all future releases. You just cannot revoke existing license terms.
- greyface- 5y ago
  GPLv2 says: Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does. I can see several possible readings. The first sentence seems to regard "use" as out of scope, and therefore, MuseScore could be well within their rights to restrict it. But the second sentence then seems to grant an unrestricted right to run the program, which this policy denies for people under 13. edit: GPLv3 says: All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met. This License explicitly affirms your unlimited permission to run the unmodified Program. The output from running a covered work is covered by this License only if the output, given its content, constitutes a covered work. This License acknowledges your rights of fair use or other equivalent, as provided by copyright law. I can't see this being allowed under GPLv3. And the GPL is pretty clear that in "GPLv2 or later" situations, it's the user who chooses.
- bombcar 5y ago
  The GPL is a contract/license; it cannot trump the law itself. You can’t slap a GPL license on porn and then distribute it to minors. It may mean you can’t distribute at all if you can’t comply with the law and the license.
  - gus_massa 5y ago
    I agree that the license doesn't make it legal. But if the law says X and the license says not X, then you can not use the license.
elaus 5y ago
Many states and jurisdictions (like the EU with GDPR) severely limit what personal data of minors you can store.
- markovbot 5y ago
  good thing there's absolutely no reason to store any data about users of an offline desktop app!

gus_massa 5y ago

Audacity has a GPL2+ license. Is it legal to add an age restriction to the compiled version?

initplus 5y ago
Copyright holders have complete freedom to license tehir work under any terms they like. I believe it's actually legal to sell commercial use licenses for GPL'd code for example. Or to switch licenses for all future releases. You just cannot revoke existing license terms.
greyface- 5y ago
GPLv2 says: Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does. I can see several possible readings. The first sentence seems to regard "use" as out of scope, and therefore, MuseScore could be well within their rights to restrict it. But the second sentence then seems to grant an unrestricted right to run the program, which this policy denies for people under 13. edit: GPLv3 says: All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met. This License explicitly affirms your unlimited permission to run the unmodified Program. The output from running a covered work is covered by this License only if the output, given its content, constitutes a covered work. This License acknowledges your rights of fair use or other equivalent, as provided by copyright law. I can't see this being allowed under GPLv3. And the GPL is pretty clear that in "GPLv2 or later" situations, it's the user who chooses.
bombcar 5y ago
The GPL is a contract/license; it cannot trump the law itself. You can’t slap a GPL license on porn and then distribute it to minors. It may mean you can’t distribute at all if you can’t comply with the law and the license.
- gus_massa 5y ago
  I agree that the license doesn't make it legal. But if the law says X and the license says not X, then you can not use the license.

elaus 5y ago

Many states and jurisdictions (like the EU with GDPR) severely limit what personal data of minors you can store.

markovbot 5y ago
good thing there's absolutely no reason to store any data about users of an offline desktop app!