External deployment / Otherwise Make Available (was Re: OVPL summary)

[Lawrence Rosen]

Brian Behlendorf wrote:
> I know you don't like edge cases, but to me the edges are still soooo 
> fuzzy that I would strongly avoid licenses that talk about "use" being 
> a trigger for any obligation.

So you would avoid the BSD license if it triggered an obligation? What if it
triggered a limitation on your rights or was the only thing you could do
besides "redistribute"? :-) 

I'm not trying to make things vague. I'm simply suggesting that patent law
has dealt with the definition of "use" for years. That word even affects our
rights under copyright law to make backups and to copy software into memory.
Cases abound.

Even in the absence of open source software, owners of software patents have
to deal with the issue of use. Is the customer at McBurger potentially
liable for patent infringement. Is the sender of email potentially liable
for patent infringement if his mail flows through a Cisco router that
infringes a patent? Of course not.

/Larry
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Behlendorf [mailto:brian at collab.net]
> Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 1:30 PM
> To: Lawrence Rosen
> Subject: RE: External deployment / Otherwise Make Available (was Re: 
> OVPL summary)
> 
> On Thu, 15 Sep 2005, Lawrence Rosen wrote:
> > The word "use" in a patent law sense, it seems to me, is
> very much the
> > way the word applies in a computer science sense. That is, one uses 
> > software when one is in control of its functions or operations, not 
> > when the software is merely incidental to the transmission,
> across a
> > network, of data belonging to third parties who are
> entirely unaware
> > of its operation and didn't elect to "use" it in any way.
> 
> I can't remember the last time I felt the software I was using was 
> under any control.  :)
> 
> I know you don't like edge cases, but to me the edges are still soooo 
> fuzzy that I would strongly avoid licenses that talk about "use" being 
> a trigger for any obligation.
> 
>  	Brian