[License-discuss] "Fairness" vs. mission objectives

[John Cowan]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 7:15 AM Eric S. Raymond <esr at thyrsus.com> wrote:

> John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org>:
> > 3) We do not consider ourselves bound by stare decisis if we believe it
> > will lead to a bad result in this particular case.  In my view,
> open-source
> > license certification is not a situation in which it is always better to
> > have a settled result than a just result.
>
> That is elegantly put, and I fully concur.
>

Yes, well, growing up in a lawin' family ...  (see below)

For the avoidance of doubt, though:  "stare decisis" means "decide this
case like the last case", not "keep specific past decisions in effect".   I
am saying that the former does not apply: we can and do change our rules to
maintain our goals.  The latter is a different matter: I favor it except in
very unusual circumstances.



John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
The first thing you learn in a lawin' family is that there ain't
no definite answers to anything.  --Calpurnia in To Kill A Mockingbird
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