RMS on Plan 9 license, with my comments

[David Johnson]

On Sun, 23 Jul 2000, Matthew Weigel wrote:

> Is there a problem with deleting the word reasonable?  Are you simply
> arguing that it doesn't need to be deleted, that it's too small detail to
> matter?  Because we don't know what reasonable might mean in a court
> room, and it might make a difference.

With or without the word "reasonable", this clause is in accordance
with the OSD and the Free Software definition. Other clauses are
different matter.

> Why don't you have to 'interpret every software license according to
> what a judge or jury....'?  Legal precendence is a part of deciding what
> licenses do, and deciding what licenses do is part of deciding whether
> they're OSI Certified or not.

I don't, and can't, interpret them that way, because I am not a
mind-reader. I've seen enough legal decision, and sat on enough juries,
to know that the legal process is far from objective.  If there is
prior precedence on the definition of "reasonable charges", then I'll
go with that, but I might as well read the tea-leaves than try to
guess what a future jury might do.

-- 
David Johnson
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