I'd love a change of topic -- me too -> Internationalization things

[Ender Batur]

Internationalization is the problem where most of the people prefer
to look the other way, I figure, for the time being. So far the
license proliferation is the problem in US, and may be in UK and AU,
sort of English speaking countries.

Translating licenses to locale is not a solution because of the
unauthorized translation process and the legal differences. In fact,
the legal base of  'accepting' a license which is not in your locale
language is also questionable. Why somebody supposed to know
English, let alone legal English, to use Open Software in order to
comply with the license terms? Does this comply with the Open source
philosophy? So, you can not say that if you can't read English, you
stay out of Open Source!

Other concern, maybe, why somebody from a country Aa with local
language aa supposed to choose/write a license in English if he/she
wants to submit their new application/framework/etc. to the internet
as open source? He/she is not proficient in English, forget the
legal English, because English is the second language for him/her.
The license has questionable legal validity in his/her country, and
his/her local people can not also understand this license, anyway.
So, if he/she submit the software package with the license
written/translated his/her own local aa language, who else could
read and understand this license? And, how would you be held liable
to a license which you do not understand? Are we coming the same
spot that we left, you stay out of Open Source if you do not
understand its license terms?

Or, are all those things boiling down to the point that if the
source code is provided, then it is there for you to grab, unless
its attached license is valid for your own country?

OK, these are some of the questions that come into my mind and I
have not managed to find any clear answers yet. Open source is
accessible by all the people, in all over the world and the open
source movement and its issues, along with the license issues,
should be evaluated with a more broader point of view.

Cheers,
--
Ender Batur
enderbatur at gmail.com
http://ebatur.fateback.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben Tilly" <btilly at gmail.com>
To: <license-discuss at opensource.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 3:17 AM
Subject: Re: I'd love a change of topic -- me too


...
...
The second is an internationalization problem.  As open source
spreads, open source licenses get applied under legal systems that
are
very different from what the  drafters anticipated.  It would be
nice
to audit open source licenses  for potential problems in different
countries, and either fix issues, or suggest alternatives if no easy
fix presents itself.  This is, of course, far easier if only a few
licenses are in use than if there are many.

...
...

Cheers,
Ben