rms at 1407.org claiming "licenses aren't contracts" and that...

[Alexander Terekhov]

On 10/19/07, Donovan Hawkins <hawkins at cephira.com> wrote:
[...]
> There was no automatic termination clause, so of course a violation that is
> considered minor would not terminate the agreement. The Plaintiff didn't
> even manually terminate the agreement, and the Defendent had already begun
> to correct the problem in future releases.
>
> What does this have to do with real licenses like GPL that containt
> automatic termination clauses? It is possible to specify in an agreement
> that something normally considered minor is to be treated as serious...I
> know you of all people won't object to my using contract law for an example,
> so I would point to the classic "time is of the essence" phrase as one such
> case.

Did you follow the link to Judge Saris' ruling?

Moglen made an attempt to trigger "automatic termination" in MySQL case:

"Given my knowledge of the practices of programming and the
requirements of the GPL, I concluded that the license violation was
intentional. Whether intentional or not, any violation of the GPL
results under §4 in a termination of the right to redistribute. ...
Under GPL §4, I conclude, Progress Software Corp. lost the right to
distribute MySQL when it distributed NuSphere MySQL Advantage in a
fashion that violated GPL.
I declare under penalty of perjury and upon personal knowledge that
the foregoing is true and correct. "

http://www.gnu.org/press/mysql-affidavit.html

(and Bruce Perens even "predicted" that "Moglen will get his
injunction" http://www.linux.com/articles/21439)

but Moglen's attempt failed miserably:

"I am not persuaded based on this record that the release of the
Gemini source code in July 2001 didn't cure the breach."

http://pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/dc/opinions/saris/pdf/progress%20software.pdf

regards,
alexander.

--
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