Re: license language flamewar [was: ITP: squeak-vm, squeak-image, squeak-sources -- A highly portable Smaltalk system]
On Sat, 2 Jun 2001, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> On 2 Jun 2001, John Hasler wrote:
> > Wolfgang writes:
> > > That "weirdness" is a right.
> > If you think about it carefully you will see that it is exactly the
> > opposite.
> Certainly not.
How can you argue that a French speaker has the right to *require* an author
of Free Software to negotiate a license in French? This is essentially what
you're saying here, and this is every bit as bad as laws (which exist in
some parts of Europe) requiring Free Software authors to provide a warranty --
when they're giving you something they don't have to give you at all, and not
getting anything out of the deal, either! Neither warranties, nor licenses in
a language the author doesn't understand, are appropriate obligations to
impose on the authors of Free Software, and I can appreciate the desire to
protect oneself from legal blindsiding by including this clause. Almost
certainly, the alternative would not be to hire a lawyer to translate the
license into French; it would be much cheaper for a company to disallow the
use of their software within the province of Québec. Be thankful that Apple
chose to find a solution that was not discriminatory.
Note that although translations of the GPL are available in several languages,
the only version that the FSF recognizes as legally binding (and the version
that everyone who makes changes to GPL code is actually agreeing to) is the
English version. If there are Quebecois who don't like this, they have the
same recourse as everyone else who doesn't like the terms of the GPL: don't
redistribute the software and don't make changes to it.
I'm sympathetic to the cause of French-speaking Canadians [1] and the cause of
minority language groups in general, but I consider it unconscionable to
demand that Free Software authors foot the bill for their linguistic freedom.
I write software for the /global/ community, not just for Americans or
Canadians. If speakers of catalá and Euskara can tolerate free software
licenses in English, I would certainly hope that French Canadians can also.
Or are we just picking on Apple because they happen to be an evil, greedy
corporation that everyone hates, and we think this software isn't
DFSG-compliant and therefore should not be accorded special protection against
provincial laws? In that case, will people please say so plainly, rather than
arguing in favor of 'rights' that have serious, harmful ramifications for the
viability of Free Software in general.
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer
[1] I happen to speak French moderately well, in spite of my national origin;
even so, since I am familiar with neither the nuances of French legal
terminology nor Canadian law, I would not be willing to be rewrite my software
license in French. As the software author, this is *my* right.
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