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Re: CDDL, OpenSolaris, Choice-of-venue and the star package ...



Marco d'Itri writes:

> vorlon@debian.org wrote:
>
>>Is a license that requires micropayments in exchange for distribution rights
>>free?  If not, why is a cost measured in terms of legal risk imposed by the
>>license more free than one measured in hundredths of a cent?
> Because it's not obviously a "cost".

I have already explained why it *is* a cost.  Choice of venue is a
promise by the licensee to be bound by and to legal processes in the
specified court.  In the US, and probably in any other common law
country, any promise like that -- even a conditional obligation, since
litigation is uncertain -- is a thing of value under contract law.

Copyleft licenses also require the licensee to make a promise, but
that pertains directly to the licensed software (and I can imagine a
number of software-related promises that would be non-DFSG-free).  But
when the cost is unrelated to the licensed software, I see no grounds
to argue that the cost is DFSG-free.

Michael Poole



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