From: MJ Ray <markj@cloaked.freeserve.co.uk>
To: gopher@complete.org
Subject: [gopher] Re: Heads up 
In-Reply-To: Message from John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>
   of "09 Jan 2002 08:53:46 EST." <87pu4jmxzp.fsf@complete.org>
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Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 21:13:58 +0000
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John:
> MJ Ray <markj@cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> writes:
> > A final settlement to the gopher licence fee saga, if there hasn't already
> > been one.  If there has, notify the authors who say otherwise.
> It's been GPL'd.
> ftp://boombox.micro.umn.edu/pub/gopher/gopher-software-licensing-policy.new

That covers the implementation, but doesn't cover the possibility of the
concept of Gopher being put under something which requires licence payments
(eg "Intellectual Property" laws in its home country).  Indeed, such a
licence would nullify the GPL.  The original web parts (eg HTTP, HTML) had a
nice legal statement from CERN saying that they were responsible for the
first art and donated it to the world.  Some claim that the resultant fear
of UMN licence payment demands are part of the reason for Gopher's slump.

Not saying I agree with that, but the GPL doesn't cover "Intellectual
Property" laws.
-- 
MJR