[License-review] For Approval: Rewrite of License Zero Reciprocal Public License

[John Cowan]

On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 1:10 PM, Kyle Mitchell <kyle at kemitchell.com> wrote:

That's what proprietary software does to permissively
> licensed code. Building on permissively licensed code makes
> a proprietary program better, and therefore more marketable.
> The open components transform from raw materials into gold.
> But the proprietary touch also hardens them, locks them up
> behind confidentiality and restrictive terms like bullion in
> a vault.


It does not, precisely because software is bits, not atoms.  The
specific *copies* of the permissive software present in the
proprietary object cannot be modified further, at least arguably.
But all other copies may.  Solaris is now Oracle proprietary, but
OpenSolaris development continues.


> Courts do not issue orders to comply with privately drafted
> license conditions. No court applying law I know, hearing a
> lawsuit about GPL or L0-R software, would ever issue an
> order to release and publicly license proprietary source
> code.


Quite right.


> If they find a licensee exceeded their permission by
> failing to meet conditions, with no legal excuse or defense,
> they'll order payment of money damages, possibly attorneys'
> fees, and perhaps issue an order to stop using the software.
> I believe that's it.
>

Note that the threat of statutory damages for copyright violation
is considerably more powerful than mere breach of contract,
especially because it's unclear that all licenses constitute
valid contracts -- many are arguably more like licenses to
trespass, where no consideration is necessary or relevant,
and which are acts of sovereign power that can be retracted
at any time by the owner.

-- 
John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
When I'm stuck in something boring where reading would be impossible or
rude, I often set up math problems for myself and solve them as a way
to pass the time.      --John Jenkins
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