[License-discuss] Open Source Eventually License Development

[John Cowan]

Eben Moglen scripsit:

> No, Mr Cowan.  The license only exists if the precedent license hasn't
> been terminated or revoked during the term.

There is no precedent license.  There is only one license, some of whose
terms don't come into effect for a while.

> So the presumptive GPL distributor who was terminated before the right
> to free sublicensing vested *will* have to sue on the (wrongfully,
> from her perspective) terminated agreement.  And here the issue of
> remedy, as I have said all along, becomes fatally relevant.

Granted, but the same is true of the GPL itself.  Surely you don't
believe that just because the GPLv3 says its permissions are
irrevocable, that they actually are?  In the world of § 203, the claim
of irrevocability is downright deceptive, and nobody should rely on it.
(TINLA.)

> This is a particularly bad failure mode, because free release in the
> event of commercial failure is one of the few reasons to pay for the
> postponed freedom license.

Say what?  The reason to pay for the license is that you want the
software immediately and can't get it otherwise right now.

== licensing content ends here, the rest is about civil behavior ==

>   Saying that Larry's resemblance to a first-year law student is
>   "hardly accidental" is hardly civil; in fact, it's downright
>   insulting.
>
> I don't see why.  I think you're insulting first-year law students.

Nonsense.  It is obvious that you were not praising Larry for being as
smart as a 1L, you were saying he was as ignorant as a 1L (a remark all
the worse because it is August).  Trade libel, I suspect.  Rudeness,
beyond all doubt.

> Their resemblance to Larry (the US 1Ls, not the Bangalore street kids)
> *is* more than accidental.  He was them once, they will be him later.

Backpedal all you want: it will not improve your standing in this
conversation at all.  Civil apologies require confession, contrition,
and promise of amendment.

> Among the many students I have taught, I have known a few who were
> hampered in life by their inability to accept the advice of those who
> had thought more deeply.

Doubtless.  I'm quite willing to take advice, even unsolicited advice,
but when it comes with double handfuls of condescension, I find it
difficult to accept.

> Another rule of the classroom with good application to mailing lists
> (for the same reason in both cases: to acknowledge and respect the
> patience of the others being subjected to the colloquy) is that when
> it's over, it's over.

There are people on this list who can silence me with a word, but don't
imagine you are one of them.  You can stop responding, or stop reading,
or put me in your .procmailrc file if you don't like it.

-- 
John Cowan    http://ccil.org/~cowan  cowan at ccil.org
The Penguin shall hunt and devour all that is crufty, gnarly and
bogacious; all code which wriggles like spaghetti, or is infested with
blighting creatures, or is bound by grave and perilous Licences shall it
capture.  And in capturing shall it replicate, and in replicating shall
it document, and in documentation shall it bring freedom, serenity and
most cool froodiness to the earth and all who code therein.  --Gospel of Tux