opensource survivability clauses

[Justin Wells]

On Mon, Sep 27, 1999 at 10:09:06AM -0400, Justin Wells wrote:
> 
> Here's a generic question: What kind of survivability clause is appropriate
> in an opensource license? 

How about this:

   You may not copy, distribute, display, perform, sublicense, or modify
   our software except as expressly provided under this license: Any other
   attempt to do so is void and will automatically terminate your rights to
   our software, as will any failure to fulfill your obligations under this 
   license. However, the rights of third parties who received unmodified, 
   verbatim copies of our software from you shall survive; and for one year 
   beyond termination you may continue to distribute a collection containing 
   our software, even though recipients may not receive any rights to it.

That would protect the rights of people who received unmodified copies
from a violator, and it would buy vendors of CD's and other collections 
some breathing room--so they wouldn't have to issue an expensive recall of 
their product. 

Recipients of that collection won't be able to use any modified version of
the software that's on it, but if it's not a critical part of the distribution,
that's just a minor inconvenience. And if the copy on the CD is an unmodified
version, then recipients will enjoy full rights to it.

Problems? Improvements?

Justin