[License-review] For approval: The Cryptographic Autonomy License (Beta 2)

[VanL]

Hi Josh,

Looking again, I didn't really address your question about the "offer an
acceptance" language. So here goes:

License terms such as these are interpreted as contracts. Contracts require
1) an offer, 2) an acceptance, and 3) consideration.

> ### 2.2. Offer and Acceptance
> This License is automatically offered to every person and organization.

This establishes that the license is being offered as-is to every possible
licensee. This is the "offer" part of contract law.

But because I don't want to individually sign an agreement with every
possible licensor, I need some way for someone who wants to use software
under this license to show that they have accepted it. That's the next part:

> You show that you accept this License and agree to its conditions by
taking any action with the Work that, absent this License, would infringe
any intellectual property right held by Licensor.

This means that if you do something that, absent the license, you would not
have the right to do, we will both agree to interpret that as you
"accepting" the license, including all of its terms.

This also establishes the "consideration" - you get software, I get your
compliance with the terms.

>### 2.3. Compliance and Remedies
> Any failure to act according to the terms and conditions of this License
places Your use of the Work outside the scope of the License and infringes
the intellectual property rights of the Licensor. In the event of
infringement, the terms and conditions of this License may be enforced by
Licensor under the intellectual property laws of any jurisdiction to which
You are subject.

This sentence ties the enforceability of the license back to intellectual
property law. IP law has stronger remedies than contract law, so we want to
be able to use IP as a tool when enforcing the CAL. But note that only the
IP owner can sue under the IP laws. What about everyone else? What about a
Recipient - a user - who wants a copy of the source and their data?

> You also agree that either the Licensor or a Recipient (as an intended
third-party beneficiary) may enforce the terms and conditions of this
License against You via specific performance.

This calls out to a doctrine in contract law that recognizes that sometimes
third parties, not named in a contract, also may have a stake in the
contract being enforced. These are "third party beneficiaries." A third
party beneficiary doesn't have all the rights that the IP holder does. But
they can sue, using this clause, for "specific performance" - a legal term
that means "you must comply with the license terms".

Thanks,
Van
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