[License-discuss] step by step interpretation of common permissive licenses

[Lawrence Rosen]

Chuck Swiger wrote:

> This is a pretty common mistake that developers tend to make when reviewing licenses.  The law doesn't come in a fully denormalized grammar suitable for context-free parsing; more importantly, judges aren't compilers.

 

The law DOES come in a "fully denormalized grammar suitable for parsing," but of course no parsing is ever context-free. 

 

The problem is that many FOSS licenses DON'T use a standard grammar for such important things as "derivative work" or "attribution notices." Developers and their lawyers often write or review licenses without a standard grammar. And then they assume that licensees are mind-readers or "compilers" of that legal code. 

 

That's the world we live in. Please don't disparage developers alone for this problem.

 

/Larry

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: License-discuss [mailto:license-discuss-bounces at opensource.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Swiger
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 10:37 AM
To: license-discuss at opensource.org
Subject: Re: [License-discuss] step by step interpretation of common permissive licenses

 

On Jan 13, 2017, at 10:05 AM, Massimo Zaniboni < <mailto:massimo.zaniboni at asterisell.com> massimo.zaniboni at asterisell.com> wrote:

> I tried interpreting the terms of common permissive licenses following a "step by step" approach, like if they were instructions in programminng code, and I found with my big surprises that doing so they became non permissive licenses, or permissive licenses only using some "border-line" interpretation.

 

This is a pretty common mistake that developers tend to make when reviewing licenses.  The law doesn't come in a fully denormalized grammar suitable for context-free parsing; more importantly, judges aren't compilers.

[<LER>] <snip> 

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