Re: sendmail X license (fwd)
Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu> writes:
> Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net> wrote:
>> Scripsit Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu>
>> > Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com> wrote:
>>
>> > > "This license is governed by California law"
>>
>> > > OK.
>>
>> > > "and both of us
>> > > agree that for any dispute arising out of or relating to this Software,
>> > > that jurisdiction and venue is proper in San Francisco or Alameda
>> > > counties."
>>
>> > > No we don't. This is non-free.
>>
>> > I fail to see the difference.
>>
>> There's a big difference between choice of law and choice of venue.
>>
>> If it *just* said "governed by California law", and the licensor
>> decided to file a frivolous lawsuit against me (think
>> tentacles-of-evil test if you will), they would still have to do it in
>> *my* home court, and they would then have to explain to *my* local
>> judge that California law interprets "accompany the copy with full
>> source code" as implicitly including an obligation to pet a cat.
>
> They wouldn't have to file the lawsuit in your local court. In fact,
> if they tried, claiming that you violated California law, the judge
> would throw it out, as the judge has no jurisdition over California
> law. The judge may not even be able to read California law, and so is
> not capable of rendering judgements based on his understanding of it.
>
> Rather, they would file in California court, because that is where
> California law is decided. The whole point of choice of law clauses
> is to force everything to happen in a particular place.
Um, I'm not a lawyer and this is outside even my
layman's-understanding of the law, but I'm certain I've seen cases
proceed in the courts of location X under the laws of location Y,
because a violation of a contract happened in X -- or the parties or
tort are somehow in X, such that it has jurisdiction, but the contract
insists on the laws of Y.
So this doesn't force it to happen in a particular place, it just
encourages the courts to virtualize their judges.
-Brian
--
Brian Sniffen bts@alum.mit.edu
Reply to: