discuss: TLF Open Software Licence

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On Thu, 6 Mar 2003 14:07:40 -0500
"Kevin O'Neill" <kevin at rocketred.com.au> wrote:

> The "TLF Open Software Licence" is a licence derived from the BSD
> licence with the warranty conditions modified to comply with
> Australian warranty law.

This seems fine.  IAAL but TINLA.  I do think we need to modify the BSD
licence because it does not attempt to limit the supplier's liability to
the re-supply of the product.  It is therefore more likely that the BSD
disclaimer will be excised completely under Australian law by reason of
section 68 of the Trade Practices Act. The same comments apply to most
other OSD-compliant licences drafted in the US or elsewhere.  Maybe what
we need, rather than having a modified BSD licence (which would then
require a modified MPL, modified GPL, etc. for people who prefer those
licences) is to have a single "plug-in" Australian warranty clause. 
This could be added to essentially *any* existing OSD-compliant licence
(if the author of the licence allows this).  Can I suggest this:

   AUSTRALIAN WARRANTY LICENCE ADDENDUM VERSION 0.1

   Notwithstanding anything else in this licence, if any clause of this
   licence which purports to disclaim or limit the copyright owner's
   liability for breach of any condition or warranty (whether express or
   implied by law) would otherwise be void, that clause is deemed to be
   subject to the reservation of liability of the copyright owner to
   supply the software again or to repair the software or to pay the
   cost of having the software supplied again or repaired, at the
   copyright owner's option.

To use this, the licensor would say "This software is released under the
terms of the XYZ licence version 1.0 with the Australian Warranty
Licence Addendum version 0.1".

Please discuss.

-- 
JEREMY MALCOLM <Jeremy at Malcolm.id.au> Personal: http://www.malcolm.id.au
Providing online networks of Australian lawyers (http://www.ilaw.com.au)
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