Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:23:51 -0700 From: Chad Perrin <code@apotheon.net> To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Adding licensing info to my ports: some questions Message-ID: <20120119162351.GA21049@hemlock.hydra> In-Reply-To: <4F1735E7.3080400@bellanet.org> References: <201201162339.q0GNdG1V064832@anthesphoria.net> <CAF6rxg=N1OcJOyfg40K8FkuzbtmS8s_R8v7VCLOCapzfmWQAtQ@mail.gmail.com> <201201170049.q0H0nTjC065207@anthesphoria.net> <20120118093411.GA11498@mud.stack.nl> <4F1735E7.3080400@bellanet.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 04:13:11PM -0500, Graham Todd wrote: > > I doubt this simpler approach would be "ITIL compliant" ;) but since > that is not a goal and the bulk of anything to do with licenses involves > lawyers anyway, the ports/pkg system should probably try to do as little > as possible regarding claims and interpretation. Surely keeping copies > of licenses in an easy to find location doesn't equate to making any > legal claim ? NB: I am not a lawyer :) I'm pretty dismayed by the "ignore it and it'll go away" attitude toward licensing in much of the open source world. How exactly do people think that a willful ignorance defense would in any way protect the FreeBSD project from copyright/license claims where an attempt at due diligence (that is, finding license information with the project files and making note of it in the port Makefile) to the reasonable best of our ability would somehow make the project liable? That doesn't make any sense, and unless there are some lawyers who can cite caselaw to the contrary I think the safest bet is probably an attempt to be transparent and informative, with a disclaimer attached. Of course, I'm not a lawyer either, and this is not intended as legal advice. It's just an expression of frustration at the way everybody seems to think intentionally ignoring licensing will somehow make copyright and license claims invalid. -- Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20120119162351.GA21049>