Re: CDDL, OpenSolaris, Choice-of-venue and the star package ...
Matthew Garrett writes:
> Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net> wrote:
>> Scripsit Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
>>
>>> But that's already possible. The majority (all?) of licenses that we
>>> ship don't prevent me from being sued arbitrarily.
>>
>> The majority (all!) of license we ship do not demand that you agree
>> *in advance* to waive your usual protections against arbitrary
>> lawsuits in exotic courts.
>
> Why does the "exotic courts" aspect actually make any significant
> difference? Are you honestly asserting that the cost of me travelling
> to, say, Finland is going to be large compared to the costs of hiring a
> lawyer to defend me?
Most people can afford either a lawyer or to defend themselves -- if
the court is close to where they are. US courts generally provide
special assistance to pro se parties, reducing the person's cost of
representing himself. The reason for this should not be surprising:
it is to make it easier for non-wealthy parties to have somewhat fair
access to the court.
There is still some bias against a novice movant, but I submit it is
negligible compared to finding a suitably specialized lawyer in a
foreign jurisdiction who can adequately communicate the legal issues
with a defendant (where there must be both a common language and
common legal ground).
Michael Poole
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