Question on OSD #5

[Matthew Flaschen]

Lawrence Rosen wrote:
>> I hadn't realize that was in MPL 1.1.  The issue I have with the clause
>> is that it may encourage the idea that the license is negotiable.
> 
> Every license is negotiable--at least with the copyright owner. That is one
> basis for successful business models.

I realize that.  What I really meant was one party shouldn't be able to
modify the license.

> Statutes and regulations always trump the license. I no longer believe that
> provisions like Jabber s. 5 and MPL 1.1 s. 4 are actually needed in open
> source licenses. None of my licenses say that any more. Licensees are simply
> expected to obey the law and not to distribute software if doing so would
> violate the law. It is not the role of the license to educate about that
> obvious fact.

What MPL 1.1/JOSL actually says is that licensees can ignore part of the
license if it contradicts the law.  Compare to GPL, which says if you
can't comply with the law /and/ distribute, then don't distribute.

Matt Flaschen