Re: Apple Public Source License

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

John Hasler <john@dhh.gt.org> quotes

[the licence terminates]
>        (c) automatically without notice from Apple if You, at any time
>            during the term of this License, commence an action for patent
>            infringement against Apple.

and comments

> This last clause would be ok in my opinion if it applied only to software
> patents.

I don't think so: it would still collide with the "no discrimination
against fields of endaveour" part of DFSG.

Saying "you cannot use this program if you do genetic research" is
explicitly disallowed. I think that saying "you cannot use this
program if you own software patents and try to enforce them" is
similarly disallowed by DFSG.

Sure, we all know that software patents are Evil. However, there are
people out there who are every inch as certain that genetic research
is evil.

If the interpretation of the DFSG becomes subject to our private
opinions about what is evil and what is not, it becomes a worthless
document, it could be replaced with "main contains packages whose
license terms we sort of like".

-- 
Henning Makholm