Re: Sun Java available from non-free
On Mon, May 22, 2006 at 01:39:47PM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> On Mon, May 22, 2006 at 12:35:41PM +0200, Michael Meskes wrote:
> > You are told by a programmer that you are allowed to offer their
> > software on your server, but the programmer also tells you that his
> > statement is legally not binding and the license says you are not
> > allowed to offer it. Then you offer it on your server and some of your
> > customers has a huge problem with that software and wants to sue someone
> > to cover their losses. Now the company that developed the software says
> > you were never allowed to offer it and with their own version your
> > customer wouldn't have got into trouble.
>
> I don't think they'd be able to make a case with that, unless they can
> prove that we seriously tampered with their software and that our
> version is totally different from theirs. Since they've been doing most
> of the packaging work themselves, I think that's going to be very,
> *very* hard.
Let me quote the license: "... you agree to defend and indemnify Sun ...
from (i) the use or distribution of your Operating System, or any part thereof ..."
Where does it say we have to tamper their software?
> If I ask you to please do something, I can't then suddenly turn around
> and say that you shouln't have actually been doing that something. That
> would be dishonest, and I can't win a case in court by being dishonest.
I wish this was true in general. :-)
> > See I'm talking about a legal problem that isn't solvable by just
> > removing software.
>
> No you're not. You're talking about an issue that only exists in
> fantasy.
And the indemnify clause is also a fantasy? I'm more than willing to
accept arguments that show me that I'm wrong, but all I got so far was
either "Sun won't do it" or "There is no problem!". I'm willing to
accept that I'm too stupid to see it, but you could at least try
convincing me, don't you think?
Michael
--
Michael Meskes
Email: Michael at Fam-Meskes dot De, Michael at Meskes dot (De|Com|Net|Org)
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