On Wed, Mar 17, 1999 at 04:00:24PM +0100, Henning Makholm wrote:
> [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.
Filing lawsuits to disrupt or otherwise harm free software is a field of
endeavor? Well, maybe if you're BillyG...
> 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.
I disagree.
> 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".
Note the netscape licenses have the same sort of thing in them and have
been determined to be free. Yes software patents are evil. And even if
that weren't the case, "If you're trying to sue me over this program then
you may not use it" is hardly discrimination. (Of course you may use the
software as part of the lawsuit, but that's a different matter)
--
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org> Debian GNU/Linux developer
PGP: E8D68481E3A8BB77 8EE22996C9445FBE The Source Comes First!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This is the element_data structure for elements whose *element_type =
FORM_TYPE_SELECT_ONE, FORM_TYPE_SELECT_MULT. */ /* * nesting deeper
and deeper, harder and harder, go, go, oh, OH, OHHHHH!! * Sorry, got
carried away there. */ struct lo_FormElementOptionData_struct."
-- Mozilla source code
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