Re: Open Software License v2.1

[Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org>]

Andrew Suffield writes:

> On Tue, Sep 21, 2004 at 07:29:10PM -0400, Michael Poole wrote:
> > If you distribute a program under the GPL, you lose most or all of
> > your ground to claim damages in court on the basis that the program
> > infringes your patent or copy rights.  (GPL sections 5, 6, et al.)
> 
> Word games. "If you license something then you lose the ability to sue
> people for acting in the manner you licensed them to do". Don't waste
> my time; you know full well that's irrelevant.

You want to protect someone's right to privately use and modify
software (that someone else wrote and tried to release for the world)
after they file a lawsuit that -- if successful -- prohibits everyone
else in the world from using that software?  On the basis that to do
otherwise is not free?

Even if your answer to both is "yes" (my answer to the first is "no"),
I am still not sure how you distinguish a patent lawsuit that claims
the software infringes a patent from sublicensing "except as expressly
provided under this [General Public] License."

Michael Poole