[Chicago] to lawer or not Was: something unrelated

[Carl Karsten]

Ian Bicking wrote:
> (I'm trying to cut down my responses, as it's probably about time for 
> the thread to wind down ;)
> 
> Carl Karsten wrote:
>>> Is it criminal to give legal advice? 
>>
>> Yes.
>>
>> "He was arrested Tuesday on four counts of grand theft, one count of 
>> theft from an elder and one count of unauthorized practice of law." 
>> http://www.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_11265472
> 
> He fraudulently claimed to be a lawyer and took money for it.  Totally 
> different ;)

you better talk to a laser about that.

> 
>>> I'm worried some people have a knee-jerk reaction about the GPL that 
>>> is based on unrealistic claims of its "viral" nature.
>>
>> Yeah, I have wondered about that - I hear "GPL infected" now and then.
> 
> When you distribute software with the GPL, you have to give the people 
> who receive the software the right to continue to redistribute it.  You 
> don't have to GPL license your work, though you do need to use something 
> "GPL-compatible" (like BSD or MIT licenses).  You only are giving that 
> software with that license to the person who receives the code.  You 
> don't have to exclusively license the code under that license, and you 
> don't lose copyright.  Meaning you can turn around and make *your* code 
> proprietary at any time, you just can't distribute it in that form until 
> you've removed the GPL'd code.
> 
> When there is a GPL violation the response has always been to ask the 
> person distributing the code to make a choice: release their code under 
> a GPL-compatible license, or remove the GPL code.  There have been some 
> times when the people receiving the code have asked for more (as with 
> Tivo, I think?) but it hasn't really gone anywhere, and only the paying 
> recipients of the code have even tried to assert that.
> 

I need a professional in ISpeak to tell me how that affects me.  have your laser 
shot over here too.

Carl K