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Given that the author hasn't given them permission to distribute GIMP, much less a modified installer of GIMP, can he send a DMCA to them?
by notwhereyouare 11y ago
Given that the author hasn't given them permission to distribute GIMP, much less a modified installer of GIMP, can he send a DMCA to them?
- colinbartlett 11y agoDoes an author need to grant permission for anyone to distribute his/her GPL'ed source?
- cowsandmilk 11y agoThey cannot file a DMCA because there are no copyright issues. This is why popular open source projects should seek trademark protection on their names. Sure, people get angry about Mozilla's protection of the Firefox trademark, but this demonstrates that there are legitimate reasons to trademark a name so you can protect it from malicious operators.
- nandhp 11y agoWhich is presumably why Firefox's downloads aren't modified (I checked yesterday): http://sourceforge.net/projects/firefox.mirror/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/firefox.mirror/
- doodpants 11y agoThe GPL itself grants permission. Further, it prevents anyone from denying anyone else such permission. That's the whole purpose of the GPL.
- reidrac 11y agoThey have permission as long as they comply with the license (GNU GPL v3+) and the author can't revoke a license already granted unless the license allows to do so, and the GPL doesn't allow it. See: "The Non-Revocable GPL" http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2006062204552163 http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2006062204552163