Re: CDDL, OpenSolaris, Choice-of-venue and the star package ...

[Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb@becket.net>]

Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net> writes:

> | The Covered Code is a "commercial item," as that term is defined in
> | 48 C.F.R. 2.101 (Oct. 1995), consisting of "commercial computer
> | software" and "commercial computer software documentation," as such
> | terms are used in 48 C.F.R. 12.212 (Sept.  1995). Consistent with 48
> | C.F.R. 12.212 and 48 C.F.R. 227.7202-1 through 227.7202-4 (June
> | 1995), all U.S. Government End Users acquire Covered Code with only
> | those rights set forth herein.
>
> I have managed to find out what "C.F.R." means and to locate the text
> of the referenced sections, completely without becoming wiser about
> what that text is supposed to achieve (and whether a private party
> *can* at all stipulate a different application of the U.S. federal
> administration's _internal_ purchasing regulations than would
> otherwise be used) ...

CFR means the Code of Federal Regulations, which are implementing
administrative rules (with the force of law) for statutes.  

In this case, the point is only about US Government End Users, a
specific category of users, and the provisions of US law which require
special copyright thingies to be said like this.  The private party
*can* make this stipulation, but only because the internal purchasing
regulations *grant* that right to private parties.

Also, CFR is not just internal purchasing regulations; the CFR has the
force of law about just about everything the regulatory state is
concerned with.  

You can read the text at http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/.

Thomas