Automatic GPL termination

[Philippe Verdy]

Alexander Terekhov [mailto:alexander.terekhov at gmail.com]
> On 9/12/07, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p at wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> [...]
> > FSF. Even if you transmit a translation of the GPL, you must still
> > provide a verbatim copy of the original unmodified GPL text in
> > English, and the GPL states that the translation must not be
> > legally binding.
> 
> Oh really? What about the French "Loi Toubon"?
> 
> Just curious. :-)
> 
> "The French Loi Toubon required all contracts to be drafted in French;
> though the law is revised by now, free software licences such as the
> GPL are still regarded as invalid because they are in English"
> 
> http://www.llas.ac.uk/resourcedownloads.aspx?resourceid=2060&filename=tsia
> vos.pps
> 
> "The first point is that the licence contract is not in French. French
> law enacted the "Loi Toubon" for the protection of the French language
> that stipulated that all contracts and legally binding documents
> creating obligations towards another person have to be drawn up in
> French in order to be legally binding. To the present day, AFAIK,
> there is still no official translation of the GNU GPL. Wy the FSF
> hasn't bothered to consider this is beyond me, but still, maybe they
> think that litigation will only ever occur in the US."
> 
> http://www.oslawblog.com/2005/01/gpl-and-non-us-law.html

Loi Toubon in France requires the presence of a translation. But even
contracts in English are accepted in France (for my past employer, which was
a US company representant in France, established in France, the contrat was
signed in US, and UK, I was paid in UK and I worked most often with
Germany...) The original text was in English, the French version just
contained a few required terms for the classification under French law.

The law just requires a right of information, in a way that must be honest,
and requires that any point of the contract be explained in French if
required. But we can accept a contract in another language. The obligation
is just for contractual terms sent to customers that have not had a chance
to negociate it prior to being asked to sign it.

And even in this case, if there's a litigation, the law requires that the
parties provide a translation that all parties will agree upon, and in case
of disagreement, the court will ask for a legal translation and will charge
the cosr of this translation to the producer of the document.

Just to make some discussion regarding the applicable legislation, France
does not differentiate the law on licences or commercial contracts.

There's the general law governing all "intellectual properties and neighbor
rights" (this is the name of a single law "DADVSI" covering copyrights,
patents, authors rights, artistic rights, interpretation rights, biological
discoveries, medical results, database collection, moral rights) and the law
on contrats that covers all forms of contracts including licences
(considered part of commercial contracts) and work contracts (that must also
obey some branch agreements). If there are differences it is only between
the public sector and the private sector because they depend on distinct
juridictions (for decisions, appeal and cassation; there was a military
branch but it has been removed and joined with the public civil
juridiction).

Also the French law differentiates moral persons, including organizations,
commerces or corporations, and physical persons regarding their applicable
legal rights. Loi Toubon about required information in French does not
concern moral persons except when they are in relation with physical persons
residing in France: this law is there to protect only individual consumers
(excluding even the small businesses with a single worker!), who have the
right of being informed in French without additional charge, but can legally
negociate any contract in another language if they accept it.

In other words, if a French consumer receives a GPL licence document in
English only, he has the legal right of asking for a French translation free
of charge before being bound to the terms of the licence (otherwise the
licencing terms are void). The existing French translations of the GPL are
considered sufficient but in case of litigation, a French consumer may ask
for a legally approved translation free of charge to the distributor that
will endorse the cost of this legal approval, and if there are significant
differences, a court will decide in favor of the most advantageous
interpretation for the individual user (that's why the CeCILL licence was
created as a compatible GPL licence in French immediately enforceable in
French courts, as it uses French legal terminology).