Redistribution vs user

Justin Wells jread at semiotek.com
Fri Sep 3 00:23:20 UTC 1999


On Thu, Sep 02, 1999 at 08:47:05PM -0400, John Cowan wrote:

> Close reading of the GPL, LGPL, BSD, MIT, and Artistic licenses
> show them to consist of 1) a nonexclusive copyright license and 2)
> a disclaimer of warranty.  There is and can be no contract whatever,
> as the formal elements of a contract are not present, notably including
> consideration.

Can the requirement of providing advertising in the original BSD license
be thought of as consideration?

   "In consideration of providing us with valuable advertising of
    our product, we grant you.."

If so, that's a major advantage for the BSD license over others. What
other forms of consideration could an open license demand? Obviously it
can't be monetary, or onerous.

Justin




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