STWL (spread the word license)

[Michael Sparks]

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004, Mikko Valimaki wrote:
..
> >    4. You agree to be of assistance if anybody requires your help in
> > installing the software or understanding the software.
>
> This is overbroad and legally unenforceable.

For the original poster...

Also it's highly impractical suggesting the original poster hadn't
realised the implications of the sentance. (if it was legally enforcable)
   * Suppose a developer modifies and releases a piece of code under this
     license.
   * Suppose it's suddenly viewed as really useful for some reason, posted
     on slashdot and 10,000 people download it.
   * Suppose it's a pain to install

This license says that the developer in question would be *required* by
the license to support each and everyone of those people. Spending 5
minutes on each email for 16 hours a day would take a month and a half to
deal with.

If this was in a contract (rather than a license) I very much doubt any
company would accept this sort of burden, let alone an open source/free
software developer.

It's nice sentiment "tell people about X, help them out", but IMO, that's
better left as a _suggestion_ in the docs, readme, rather than as part of
the license. (No one sane would touch it otherwise - unless that's the
real intent...)

Regards,


Michael.
--
Not-a-lawyer,not legal advice, just comments