Re: Deltec UPS Software
Debian-legal folks: I'd like to eventually package Douglas Thompson's Deltec
UPS control software for Debian, and was hoping to get some input. In
particular, Douglas feels he needs to add a clause to his license to avoid
liability. I think the license already covers this contingency.
On Wed, Mar 31, 1999 at 06:36:10PM +1000, Douglas Thomson wrote:
> > > In short, I would be happy for my package to eventually be included
> > > with the Debian distribution, but not until someone cleaned up the
> > > packaging a bit!
> >
> > I could work on this. I don't know enough about how it's currently done to
> > comment on things, but as soon as I get the power converter (we have 120v
> > line current here in the US, and my Deltec UPS is 220v) and a cable, I'll
> > get cracking on it.
>
> OK, fine.
>
> > > > Are there any license issues that would prevent Debian from including your
> > > > software with their distribution?
> > >
> > > As you may have seen in the comment in upscpowerd.c, I am using the
> > > GNU licence with one exception:
> > > The GNU license only excludes liability to the extent permitted
> > > by applicable law. I am not aware of any jurisdictions which
> > > will not allow exclusion of liability for free software provided
> > > in source form, but if such jurisdictions do exist then this
> > > software is not licensed to be run in those jurisdictions at all.
> > > If I cannot legally exclude liability to you then you cannot
> > > legally use my software! You could, however, create a derivative
> > > work, assume liability for your own version, and then run your
> > > own version :-)
> > >
> > > If this is a major problem then it is probably negotiable, subject to
> > > some evaluation of the potential risk...
> >
> > If your program is based on genpower, you can't change the license. Doing so
> > would invalidate your license to distribute the portions derived from
> > genpower.
>
> I don't think there is actually much original code left now :-)
>
> > If you are really concerned about liability, requiring the user to
> > complete an afidavit stating that both 1. they are unable to sue you,
> > and 2. even if they are, they promise not to before allowing them to
> > download the software would probably suffice.
>
> And suffice to make the software more trouble than it was worth to
> most potential users I suspect...
>
Tons of people still download PGP from MIT's distribution site, despite
having to complete an online afidavit stating that they are in the US.
At any rate, I think this is superflorous. The odds of successfully suing
someone over something you got for free and was clearly marked with "NO
WARRANTY, NO LIABILITY" in several places in big capital letters is slim. I
think any such case would probably be dismissed at the first opportunity,
and the initiator penalized for creating a frivilous lawsuit. However, I am
not a lawyer. Ask a real one if you're that heavily concerned.
> > If you're in a loser pays legal fees for frivilous lawsuits jurisdiction,
> > then you probably have nothing to worry about.
>
> I suspect this is the case here. Have there ever been any cases of
> authors of free source software getting sued for problems in their
> code?
>
I will cc this to debian-legal for their opinion. I think these lawsuits are
rare to non-existant, and the odds of someone winning are nearly nil. Large
universities wouldn't give away software if it opened them to liability.
Heck, it's even difficult to get money out of a proprietary software company
beyond the purchase price, even when it's obvious that they've been grossly
negligent and it's cost you tons of money.
Without the extra clause, any potential licensing issues go away, and we
should have no problem including your software in Debian when it's ready.
--
Brian Ristuccia
brianr@osiris.978.org
bristucc@baynetworks.com
bristucc@cs.uml.edu
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