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Are there any lawyers in the house?

Story: Defence statement released in Israeli GPL testTotal Replies: 4
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number6x

Apr 03, 2007
1:02 PM EDT 		Could anyone, knowledgeable, comment on why the GPL would be illegal under Israeli copyright law?

Does Israeli copyright law prohibit copyright holders from distributing their own material under a license? Does it prohibit distribution of copyrighted material by anyone other than the copyright holder (like can only Stephen King sell his books in Israel, but not his publisher)?

Its hard to see how the GPL can be illegal in almost any jurisdiction (outside of Redmond, WA). If anyone knows, I'd appreciate your thoughts.
dcparris

Apr 03, 2007
1:44 PM EDT 		It's just that Israeli copyright law may not support the GPL. It depends on they interpret the GPL, probably along the lines of license vs. contract. There may be other factors that I am not aware of.
number6x

Apr 03, 2007
1:56 PM EDT 		It could be.

But anything that would restrict the GPL v2 would have a pretty big impact on the publishing industry in general.

Its hard too picture in a Democracy.

I could see a dictatorship restricting all licensing to ruling party members or something like that, but Israel?
dcparris

Apr 03, 2007
2:43 PM EDT 		I don't know if you recall, but there was a question about the validity of the GPL in Germany some time back. Iirc, the issue came down to whether the courts would consider it a contract, in which case, it would have been invalidated. They apparently upheld it as a license. Now that I have actually read the article and its predecessor, the end of the article refers to derivative works - meaning that Israeli law may not recognize that an author has any rights over such derivative works. Frankly, the defense better hope that is the case. Otherwise, they are fairly well sunk, except for the screenshots. I think the plaintiff is shooting in the wind on that point. Just my 2nd-hand opinion.
number6x

Apr 03, 2007
5:22 PM EDT 		I see what you are saying.

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