[TAG] [lgang] Debian & OPL

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Kapil Hari Paranjape (kapil at imsc.res.in):

[Bastard reverse copyleft licensing:]

> I must admit this one is a bit clever. Effectively it prevents me
> from saying something like:
> 
> 	Here is what that whatchamacallit-thingummy-boob called Rick
> 	Moen said: <snippet from rants page>. That just proves that
> 	I'm smarter than he is because ....
> 
> The danger of out-of-context quotes snipped from detailed arguments is
> certainly one that is difficult to defend against. I salute you for
> having acquired protection against it!

Actually, no licensing can prevent such quotation, per se, because
quotation of limited excepts for reasons of criticism always qualifies
as fair use, and needs no licensing.

For completeness, I should mention that ill-intentioned reuse probably
isn't not much of a threat, really -- because, as licensing nerds tend
to forget, copyright litigation isn't one's only defence against such
misdeeds.  Sticking just to legal remedies:  There are a number of torts
that such a commentator might, if sufficiently nasty, be committing:
libel, business torts, etc.  Additionally, there's the traditional
real-world remedy when A distorts what B said about C.  You debunk
the assertion by pointing out what B really said, and let others draw
the obvious conclusion about A's ethics.

This matter becomes relevant with, say, putting a magazine's content
under a pure copyleft licence (say, GPLv2 or later).  Yes, it is indeed
then possible that malign parties might then abuse your work.  Your
remedy?  Write about it!