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activities and people outside the jurisdictions of these governments. |
activities and people outside the jurisdictions of these governments. |
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| 166 |
<P> |
<P> |
| 167 |
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Most free software licenses are based on copyright, and there are |
| 168 |
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limits on what kinds of requirements can be imposed through copyright. |
| 169 |
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If a copyright-based license respects freedom in the ways described |
| 170 |
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above, it is unlikely to have some other sort of problem that we never |
| 171 |
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anticipated (though this does happen occasionally). However, some |
| 172 |
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free software licenses are based on contracts, and contracts can |
| 173 |
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impose a much larger range of possible restrictions. That means there |
| 174 |
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are many possible ways such a license could be unacceptably |
| 175 |
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restrictive and non-free. |
| 176 |
|
<P> |
| 177 |
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We can't possibly list all the possible contract restrictions that |
| 178 |
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would be unacceptable. If a contract-based license restricts the user |
| 179 |
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in an unusual way that copyright-based licenses cannot, and which |
| 180 |
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isn't mentioned here as legitimate, we will have to think about it, |
| 181 |
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and we will probably decide it is non-free. |
| 182 |
|
<P> |
| 183 |
When talking about free software, it is best to avoid using terms like |
When talking about free software, it is best to avoid using terms like |
| 184 |
``give away'' or ``for free'', because those terms imply that the |
``give away'' or ``for free'', because those terms imply that the |
| 185 |
issue is about price, not freedom. Some common terms such as |
issue is about price, not freedom. Some common terms such as |
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