Re: license language flamewar

[Steven Hanley <sjh@svana.org>]

On Sun, Jun 03, 2001 at 10:50:16PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 03, 2001 at 07:39:08AM -0500, John Hasler wrote:
> > > ...at least for commercially bought products.
> > I'm not commercially selling products in the Netherlands.  I'm distributing
> > free software in the United States.  Why should I have to deal with your
> > local laws just because you chose to take your copy home with you?
> 
> One of the basics of free software is that users and authors get treated
> equally (both can make copies and modifications, eg).
> 
> Why should I have to deal with your local laws just because I chose not
> to live in the US? If you die, and I take over maintaining your program,
> why should I have to use US law to sue a German for copyright infringement
> instead of either Australian or German law?
> 
> Provisions for working out which jurisdiction is the appropriate one to try
> a case when a crime crosses jurisdictions is a matter for governments to
> work out, not something you ought to try to tack onto your license.

okay so admittedly I didnt read why this whole thread started in the first
place, however I wonder why people want to add seemingly unecessarty cruft to
the GPL and similar licences.

This email and the reply to it, suggesting either having licences localixsed
to the location of the developer or having all licences set in US law only and
only interprable in US law. Makes me wonder what the heck people are thinking
(though in Tnthony's defense I belive he is just saying this as a way of
pointing out the problems with the idea of localising all licences ot US law
explicitly)

The idea of having to come up with licences for software depending on the
country is insane, after all we already see far too much confusion and
ambiguity form the existing licences and because of them, even the GPL, which
has been around for a long time now and has had a lot of effort put into it.

Keep complexity down, lets try to use fewer licences if it is possible. What
is wrong with the free software movement so far that would suggest we need to
go and explicitly set in stone the interpretation of a licence in Us law, or
the need for a version of a licence localised to every country in the world
(not possible, but hey)

Leave the licences be and if there are challanges lawyers or whatever can work
out problems at the time, lets not go looking for trouble and add complexity
due to perceived future porblems (this as most will know is a very important
rule in software design and creation), also trying to second guess law all
over the place or argue about law of licences and such (rather than just
striving for freedom) seems suspect as most of us are not lawyers (who really
wants to when we can instead play with computers :) so lets leave it all be
and see what happens.

Just my random thoughts on the matter.

        See You
            Steve

-- 
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