From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 8 14:55:16 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D35337B401 for ; Fri, 8 Aug 2003 14:55:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rwcrmhc13.comcast.net (rwcrmhc13.comcast.net [204.127.198.39]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9372B43FA3 for ; Fri, 8 Aug 2003 14:55:15 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from underway@comcast.net) Received: from localhost.localdomain (12-230-74-101.client.attbi.com[12.230.74.101](untrusted sender)) by attbi.com (rwcrmhc13) with ESMTP id <200308082155140150045rk0e>; Fri, 8 Aug 2003 21:55:14 +0000 Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h78LsvSE029543 for ; Fri, 8 Aug 2003 14:54:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from underway@comcast.net) Received: (from jojo@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.9/8.12.9/Submit) id h78Lsq6J029542; Fri, 8 Aug 2003 14:54:52 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from underway@comcast.net) To: FreeBSD Chat References: <4.3.2.7.2.20030808105028.018effd0@threespace.com> From: underway@comcast.net (Gary W. Swearingen) Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 14:54:52 -0700 In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20030808105028.018effd0@threespace.com> (Chip Morton's message of "Fri, 08 Aug 2003 10:51:52 -0400") Message-ID: <9nk79ng6hf.79n@mail.comcast.net> User-Agent: Gnus/5.1002 (Gnus v5.10.2) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley, berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: Re: Good news, Brett! X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 21:55:16 -0000 > http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/06/HNgplunenforceable_1.html It's hard to believe that the guy wrote a 123-page report on the subject. He didn't seem very familiar with his subject. It sounded like he was mostly just trying to raise the level of FUD. I'll try to summarize what I think he was trying to say: German and EU law makes developers (I suspect that means "owners"), distributers, and dealers of software liable in ways that cannot be waived in license contracts such as the GPL. [So be it. Lawyers are paid to sort that stuff out. It's no reason for people to not use o.s. software; just reason to not do business in the EU.] The wrong people might get sued when people don't know who owns which parts of some software, or what is derivative of what. [A tough problem, but not a frequent problem, and not unique to the EU.] Employers are in a tricky legal situation when they pay people to write software that they can't sell licenses for. (No explanation, except that it is a "latent contradiction".) [That was worthless.] Users of open-source software are taking a risk that he's wrong (or the law will change) and all those open-source software people really can't be held liable. [Sounds like a GOOD thing, to me. But they don't think they can sue them as it is now, so there's no more risk.] The GPL should be rewritten in German to acknowledge everyone's liability ("in the interest of users, open source developers and competition") under German law. [That's about all he needed to have said.]