<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Hi, Larry--</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Computer grammars can have context-free parsers:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-free_grammar" class="">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-free_grammar</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div>The phrase I used was as much a term of art from computer language / formal grammar theory,<div class="">much as the terms of a software license involve terms of art from the law.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Regards,</div><div class="">-- </div><div class="">-Chuck<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""><div><div class="">On Jan 13, 2017, at 11:13 AM, Lawrence Rosen <<a href="mailto:lrosen@rosenlaw.com" class="">lrosen@rosenlaw.com</a>> wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; font-family: Monaco; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><a name="_MailEndCompose" class="">Chuck Swiger wrote:<o:p class=""></o:p></a></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="">> 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.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="">The law DOES come in a "fully denormalized grammar suitable for parsing," but of course no parsing is ever context-free.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="">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.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="">That's the world we live in. Please don't disparage developers alone for this problem.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="">/Larry<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><span class=""></span><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">-----Original Message-----<br class="">From: License-discuss [<a href="mailto:license-discuss-bounces@opensource.org" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); text-decoration: underline;" class="">mailto:license-discuss-bounces@opensource.org</a>] On Behalf Of Chuck Swiger<br class="">Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 10:37 AM<br class="">To:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:license-discuss@opensource.org" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); text-decoration: underline;" class="">license-discuss@opensource.org</a><br class="">Subject: Re: [License-discuss] step by step interpretation of common permissive licenses</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">On Jan 13, 2017, at 10:05 AM, Massimo Zaniboni <<a href="mailto:massimo.zaniboni@asterisell.com" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="text-decoration: none;" class="">massimo.zaniboni@asterisell.com</span></a>> wrote:<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">> 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.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">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.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><i class="">[<LER>]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></b><snip><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div></div><span style="font-family: Monaco; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">_______________________________________________</span><br style="font-family: Monaco; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Monaco; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">License-discuss mailing list</span><br style="font-family: Monaco; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><a href="mailto:License-discuss@opensource.org" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); text-decoration: underline; font-family: Monaco; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">License-discuss@opensource.org</a><br style="font-family: Monaco; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><a href="https://lists.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); text-decoration: underline; font-family: Monaco; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">https://lists.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss</a></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></body></html>