Legal soundness comes to open source distribution

[David Johnson]

On Wednesday 14 August 2002 01:23 am, Rick Moen wrote:

> There will probably always be clever licence provisions to attempt
> subversion of the OSD's intent, no matter how many of them get patched.
> It would save a lot of time and energy to fall back on the rule of
> reason -- and the right of usage is obviously necessary to and implied
> by the existing OSD terms.

I agree. The history of the legal profession has shown that a significant 
number of lawyers are willing and able to fold, spindle and mutilate even the 
most straightforward language.

No matter how precise the OSD becomes, there will always be attempts to 
subvert it. The US Bill of Rights has some small amount of protection in the 
form of "original intent". Perhaps the OSI could also consider "original 
intent" during its deliberations?

-- 
David Johnson
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