It is both plain reading of copyright law and the license when you grant a license without signatures and make it clear that it is an offer it to all parties. In the end, the only thing that *does matter* is what judges say. In Germany, that's clear. While not precedence, the US judge in MySQL vs. Progress in 2000 also made it clear that returning to compliance allowed them to continue distributing when she ruled against a motion to stop distribution (and that returning to compliance had "cured" the breach.
And what I find disturbing is that after all of these rulings ... the FSF does not acknowledge that their current interpretation might be wrong or even mention these rulings as a footnote. I call that dishonest!
Eben got it wrong and that bad idea has propagated through a handful of US lawyers who worked with him. *Every* judge that has ruled on the matter has shown that the GPLv2 Death Penalty is a myth/lie.
In regard to Welte ... I'm not familiar with what you are talking about -- do you have a link? Of course his lawyer in the Sitecom case (Till Jaeger) is also adamant that the GPLv2 death penalty is not valid.
Re: FSF, SFC, and the SFLC
And what I find disturbing is that after all of these rulings ... the FSF does not acknowledge that their current interpretation might be wrong or even mention these rulings as a footnote. I call that dishonest!
Eben got it wrong and that bad idea has propagated through a handful of US lawyers who worked with him. *Every* judge that has ruled on the matter has shown that the GPLv2 Death Penalty is a myth/lie.
In regard to Welte ... I'm not familiar with what you are talking about -- do you have a link? Of course his lawyer in the Sitecom case (Till Jaeger) is also adamant that the GPLv2 death penalty is not valid.