Re: NEdit Text Editor License for Review
On Wed, Jun 16, 1999 at 12:17:45AM +0200, Henning Makholm wrote:
> James Mastros <james@rtweb.net> writes:
> > On Tue, Jun 15, 1999 at 04:22:48PM +0200, Henning Makholm wrote:
> > > Mark Edel <edel@ltx.com> writes:
>
> > > > The User shall indemnify URA and the U.S. Government for all
> > > > damages, costs or expenses, including attorney's fees, arising
> > > > from the utilization of the software, including, but not limited
> > > > to, the making, using, selling or exporting of products,
> > > > processes or services derived from the Software.
>
> > > So if I use the software, and the U.S. government use the software
> > > independently of me and get themselves into trouble, they can sue me to
> > > cover their expenses?
>
> > This is the United States -- you can sue anybody for anything. Then again,
> > in this case it seems clear to me that they wouldn't have a snowballs chance
> > in <bleep> of winning.
>
> Well this here is *not* the United States, and I read the quoted
> passage as "if you choose to use our software you must be prepared
> to cover all the expences WE will ever have in connection with
> anybody's use of our software".
Hm. I kind of forgot that you can sue sombody in a Danish court for
breaking an American-writ license. In any case, the license clearly states
that you cannot hold URA or the US Government accountable for damages yadda
yadda yadda. It does not assign these damages to another (IE you), and
if there is no other reason that the damages would fall upon you
("independently of me"), then they could not collect on a suit for damages.
If, OTOH, "you" are the packager (in which case the usage is not independent
of you, which is possibly the sticking point here), then you need to write a
waver similar to the one above for your modifications -- because the
upstream-license leaves you (and possibly the Debian Project) open to suit.
-=- James Mastros
--
First they came for the fourth amendment, but I said nothing because I
wasn't a drug dealer. Then they came for the sixth amendment, but I kept
quiet because I wasn't guilty. Finally they came for the first amendment,
and by then it was too late to say anything at all."
-=- Nancy Lebowitz
cat /dev/urandom|james --insane=yes > http://www.rtweb.net/theorb/
ICQ: 1293899 AIM: theorbtwo YPager: theorbtwo
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