English licenses on non English speaking countries

["Marcelo E. Magallon" <mmagallo@efis.ucr.ac.cr>]

 [ Don't Cc: me, I'm on -legal. ]

Hi,

 this is the best place I can think of to ask this question ...

 I have read several times that some countries don't accept legal
 documents (such as licenses, please correct me if a license doesn't
 fall into this category) in languages other than their official one.
 In particular I've read this might be is the case in Spain, France
 and Germany.

 The local group (Costa Rica) is researching this issue, but we are
 sincerely at lost.  I know Costa Rica is a party to the Berne
 convention, but it isn't a party to the Hague Convention (don't know
 if that's relevant).  We are asking here if it's valid to release a
 program under a lincense written in English (GPL) for which there's
 no official translation.  We are also researching what options are
 there (I've suggested paying for a certified translation of the GPL
 to be used as a _reference_, not a replacement)

 We have handed the GPL to a lawyer here (she's working pro bono), so
 she can evaluate the validity of the license under costarrican laws,
 and the first thing she asked for was a Spanish translation. :-(

 We will apprecciate any pointers,


         Marcelo