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

[Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org>]

Matthew Garrett writes:

> Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org> wrote:
>> Matthew Garrett writes:
>>> We've seen frivolous suits against software alleging patent
>>> infringement. Since the only way we can protect our users from these is
>>> to stop distributing software, should we do so?
>> 
>> I do not propose we do anything to stop frivolous lawsuits.  I suggest
>> you reread the paragraph you quoted instead of just the last sentence.
>
> But downloading a piece of software from Debian opens me up to the
> possibility of frivolous lawsuits from the copyright holder, something
> that did not occur before. How is that not a cost?

Why did it not exist before?  Your assumption seems to be a
sociopathic copyright owner.  I think that is an inappropriate
assumption, but sociopaths and frivolous lawsuits are seldom rational.
For example, a certain Unix software company has threatened to sue
Linux users who never used System V Unix, on the basis that they
violated System V Unix copyrights.  Debian's "choice" (in quotes since
I think no one would seriously propose it) to not distribute System V
Unix did nothing to address such threats.

Michael Poole