There's been some fascinating commentary over on my (more serious) open source blog regarding the FSF's enforcement action, and some really interesting notions—fantasies, really—have been floated about how the GPL operates, legally speaking. Evidently, it's believed to be something like this:
I write some code, and I license it under my new open source license (I'll be submitting to the OSI shortly): the "Shave Your Head and Paint Yourself Purple Public License" (SYH&PYPPL, see below). It is identical to the "Four-clause BSD" license, with the exception that, rather than the "advertising clause", the SYH&PYPPL contains a clause stating, if one distributes a binary copy based on this work, one is obligated to shave one's head and paint oneself purple (using pigments of one's choice). This may well qualify as the first "strong copy-silliness license" and, I believe, completely satisfies the "Open Source Definition".
I compile my code and upload it to the App Store. As soon as I see someone has downloaded a copy, I show up on Apple's doorstep and demand that Steve Jobs shave his head and paint himself purple immediately, since by the act of distribution, he's now obligated to observe my license.
The Shave Your Head and Paint Yourself Purple Public License
Copyright © 2010, David "Lefty" Schlesinger. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, if this work are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- The name of the David "Lefty" Schlesinger may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
- If you redistribute, or cause to be redistributed, this software in a binary form, you are immediately obligated to shave your head and paint yourself purple, using pigments of your choosing.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. "PURPLE" IS DEFINED, IN RGB TERMS, AS A ROUGHLY EQUAL MIXTURE OF "RED" (0xFF0000) AND "BLUE" (0x0000FF).
