Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 18:41:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Thomas David Rivers <rivers@dignus.com> To: chat@freebsd.org, davids@webmaster.com, rivers@dignus.com Cc: ragnar@sysabend.org Subject: RE: BSD, GPL, the world today. Message-ID: <199905132241.SAA44642@lakes.dignus.com> In-Reply-To: <000101be9d8d$38c6e120$021d85d1@whenever.youwant.to>
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> > > > You "bought" the software, and agreed to the license terms > > > when you opened the box, didn't you - Caveat Emptor. > > > > That's a pretty fine legal point that hasn't fully been settled yet, but > > the court cases seem to be leaning towards throwing it out. The shrink > > wrap license may finally! become a stupidity of the past within the > > next few years. > > If so, that will be the end of the GPL/GLL, as they are the grandaddy of > all shrink wrap agreements. > > DS > > Didn't I understand that some shrink-wrap oriented laws were working their way through the US senate/house? Even if the law is passed, I've talked with several lawyers who say shrink-wrap breaks some of the fundamental tenets of our english/common-law based contract law... and thus, any law enacted is likely to be dismissed by the courts, eventually. The idea that shrink-wrap seems to break is that both parties read and understand the agreement before agreeing to it, and *before* any money changes hands. Shrink-wrap doesn't give the purchasing party that opportunity; so, technically, they haven't aggree'd to it, and the purchase is complete. Thus, any assertions made by the seller of license violations are null-and-void. Of course, hypothetically, this means one go buy a copy of some shrink-wrap software and begin reselling it oneself, as no agreement was made and the money changed hands... but, I don't recommend that - at least copyright law should prevent it. - Dave Rivers - To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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