[Discussioni] Repost: GPL and NDA

[Alessandro Rubini]

I posted this message on Aug 18th, but I got no reply. I'm reposting
because I feel the issue pretty important.

Thanks
/alessandro



Hello.

In the italian discussion list (discussioni a softwarelibero.it) one
member asked what happens when GPL software is enhanced by a company
that then requires places an NDA on all of it's own production. Is use
by an employee allowed or not?

While a thread on fsb a crynwr.com explains that distribution happens only
when the software crosses a legal boundary -- so internal use in a company
means use by employees as well, as long as they are not authorized to use
the software outside of the company -- our doubts are about misbehaving
companies.

If the company distributes the derived software under NDA, which of these
two apply?
	A- the NDA is invalid and the recipient can use the GPL rights
	B- the NDA is valid and the recipient cannot use the software at all
		because of GPL.7 ("If you cannot ... not ... at all").

I thought point B above applies, since a license can't invalidate
another contract (the NDA) that the recipient signed. Other people
however thinks that point A applies.

I really hope it does not, as such behaviour would reinforce the idea
that the license is "viral" (and actually, I really doubt that idea
can stand in court when the recipient signed the NDA and then violates
it).

Can you please help? thanks.

BTW: if you could also clarify what was the legal hack used by the Trillian
project to work under NDA for some time with GNU code, I'd be interested
to know.

/alessandro