APSL 1.1 available for comment.

Brian Behlendorf brian at hyperreal.org
Tue Apr 20 04:06:49 UTC 1999


On Mon, 19 Apr 1999, Ken Arromdee wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Apr 1999, Brian Behlendorf wrote:
> > But under patent law, as I
> > understand it, that's not good enough - we have to expend some sort of
> > reasonable effort to get people to STOP using the old, infringing version.

Context of the above being, "we the Apache group, in the event of a patent
infringement".

> If the license doesn't let Apple withdraw anything, how in the world could
> "reasonable effort" require that Apple withdraw anything?

You mean, if Apple changed the license to have none of that withdrawal
language, and left it up to the courts to decide how best to determine
what Apple should do in the case of a valid patent claim?  By having this
option in the license, they probably escape other burdens a lawsuit would
be asking for, such as a large sum of money.  At least, if I were a patent
asshole suing Apple, saying "we didn't put anything like that in the
license, so we can't stop people from using it" is kind of like a thief
saying "I gave away all the money I stole from the bank to the poor, that
means you can't force me to pay any of it back".

Again, IANAL.

	Brian







More information about the License-discuss mailing list