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Re: DFSG Freeness of Patent Reciprocity Clauses



Brian Sniffen wrote:
Would the following be considered Free by anybody here?

     If You institute litigation against any entity (including a
     cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work
     or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct
     or contributory copyright infringement, then any licenses
     granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate as
     of the date such litigation is filed.

Yep, I think it's Free, and here's why.

If you allege that the Work contains copyright violations, you are implicitly alleging that the license for the Work does not grant a valid license.

Accordingly, you shouldn't be using the Work under that license *anyway*
(you believe that the license is invalid!). Explicitly revoking the licenses revokes only those rights you have claimed that you don't have.

Revoking other rights (such as rights to an earlier version which you didn't claim had copyright infringements) would certainly not be Free.



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