Re: Patent clauses in licenses
The point of promoting free software is to allow people to
use/study/modify/redistribute software in freedom. People can't do these
things in freedom if they are subjected to unreasonable restrictions in
the licenses attached to the software.
Do you think that it is reasonable to expect the licensee L to give up her
legal rights with respect to the author A of program P in exchange for
being allowed to use/study/modify/redistribute program P?
It depends on what the rights in question are, I guess.
At one extreme it would be unreasonable to expect L to give up her legal
right, e.g., to sue A for damages caused by A's automobile running into
L's house.
At the other extreme it would be reasonable to expect L to give up her
legal right to sue A for damages caused by L's use of program P. (I
assume here that offering programs on an as-is basis is reasonable.)
I don't see how L's right to sue A for patent infringement can possibly
resemble the second case more than the first, so I am inclined to regard
the demand that L give up such rights as unreasonable ... until someone
can give me some suitable reasoning, of course.
--
Thomas Hood
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