OT - GNU Contract Law Theory: ANTICIPATORY REPUDIATION

[Mahesh T. Pai]

Alexander Terekhov said on Tue, Aug 28, 2007 at 08:25:20PM +0200,:

 > Intellectual property license are contracts governed by the laws of
 > contract.

Wrong.

Requirements for licensing trade secrets, copyrights, patents and
trademarks, all of which constitute intellectual property, are
different. Please be specific about what intellectual property you are
talking about.

SOME copyriht licenses are bilateral contracts, the form and formation
of which are governed by law of contracts. Once formed, the contents
of the licenses and remedies for breach are governed by law of
copyright.

Even in case of unilateral contracts, the person making the contract
(the copyright holder in case of works under GPL) the guy has to be
competent to enter into  a contract, and the criteria for competency
is defined in the law relating to contracts, not copyrights.

Think of the law of contracts as a library, to which the law of
copyrights links dynamically. For the ``functions'' defnied in law of
contracts, the copyright law looks into the law of contracts; but when
there is a specific ``function'' local|private to the law of copyright,
the definition in law of copyright prevails. 


 > State permits licenses (driver licenses, gun dealership, public
 > lottery permits, etc.) to do something regulated by government are
 > not contracts.

Nobody has canvassed this position.
 
Ever seen those things called ``ski lifts''?? Ones which take skiers
to top of a moutnain?  The things hanging from the cable, which carry
people are called ``cars''.

You probably will be commuting on a thing with four wheels and an
internal combustion engine. That is also called a ``car''. 

Got the point?  No?? I will simplify it for you.

  ``Different things may have same names; dissimilar things will be
    treated differently, though they have same hames.''

 > Very interesting ... and are governed by what "status"?

It is because your knowledge level is so high that I am forced to ask
you to take a break and read more on law and legal issues. Try an old
(50 years or more) book, preferably by an English author. The US
published ones try to be too ``case study'' centric and people like
you will end up learning nothing from such ``case books''. You can
start with Salmond's Jurisprudence.

-- 
 Mahesh T. Pai <<>> http://paivakil.blogspot.com/
It's not the software that's free; it's you.