A new "use" clause in the OSD

Russell Nelson nelson at crynwr.com
Tue Aug 6 14:40:49 UTC 2002


We need to introduce a new clause into the OSD.  The new clause must
specify what restrictions on user activity are allowed.  Here is my
suggestion:

OSD#11: A license must not restrict the use or modification of the
software in any way except the following: it may disclaim warranties,
it may grant limited patent use rights, it may specify arbitration, it
may suspend use rights if the user sues for patent infringement, and
it may prohibit modifications which remove legal information.

Whether this is accompanied by an acceptance ceremony
(e.g. click-wrap) is a different subject.  This needs to be added to
forestall any number of unattractive terms such as those showing up in 
Microsoft EULA's and which are not otherwise prohibited by the OSD now.

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