On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 05:18:22PM +0100, MJ Ray wrote:I didn't find the reference given in the draft summary particularly helpful in understanding why this makes something non-free, and similar terms are in some licences the FSF regards as free copyright licences. Does anyone have some more, please?Stock objection to choice of venue clauses is that they force people to travel at their own expense. In essence they attempt to bypass the legal system by making it prohibitively expensive for somebody to defend themselves.
This doesn't seem to be a stock choice of venue clause, though. It only applies when there is a US party and some have claimed that the choice of venue clause would not necessarily prevent a US defendant being heard in their local court, such as Nathanael Nerode in http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/06/msg00237.html
For international cases, the usual venues accepted by the US seem to be "place of origin" and "place of hurt". If the US legal system regards the MPL as a licence, it seems they would wait for the verdict from the defendant's location, as usual. Is that true?
Additionally, the expense is ultimately borne by the licensor if they bring abusive cases. That's not ideal, because you're out-of-pocket until then, but it is another twist.
Finally, I realise I should know this, but how does choice of venue go beyond DFSG? Discrimination against groups of people?
-- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ for creative copyleft computing