Re: Patents and revocation clauses
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> - someday company B steps forward with an obscure algorithm patent
> that IBM unknowingly violated in their original source code.
> - if IBM cannot then revoke the wold-be-free license it could end
> up being stuck with giving people permission do distribute of
> infringing software.
> - company B could set their price for re-licensing rights, and IBM
> would have no option but to pay.
they could do what the the gpl does: if it becomes illegal to use the
software due to future patent problems or court orders, the gpl
explicitly fails to override this, and is thus useless from the user's
p.o.v. without actually giving anyone the right to terminte the license
at will.
- --p.
"Reasoning is partly insane" --Rush, "Anagram (for Mongo)"
PGP 5.0 key (0xE024447449) at http://cif.rochester.edu/~phouchg/pgpkey.txt
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