[License-discuss] [Non-DoD Source] Re: Resources to discourage governments from bespoke licenses?

[Pamela Chestek]

On 2/28/2020 3:31 PM, Karan, Cem F CIV USARMY CCDC ARL (USA) via
License-discuss wrote:
> My memory on this is **very** fuzzy, and the details were explained in somewhat technical legal jargon, so if I get this wrong, please forgive me.  There was some kind of issue involving giving what could be construed as legal advice to someone that wasn't their client (the US Government).  For some reason, talking to other lawyers solved the issue. 
I recall this too, so it seems my earlier email about a proxy may have
been where you were the proxy! I find this kind of hilarious, but maybe
government lawyers don't have the same sense of humor I do. There are
many lawyers on the list and we all walk the line about whether we're
providing legal advice, IANYL and all. The hilarity is that we negotiate
licenses with others, lawyers and non-lawyers, all the time and there
are no secrets and no privilege when you're talking to an opposing
party. Yes, what you say may ultimately (in the rare case) come back to
bite you if the license is litigated, but that's true in a one-on-one
negotiation too. The only difference here is that the discussion is
publicly available (which is generally not the case in a private
negotiation) and there are A LOT of people on the other side.

Pam

(comments my own, not OSI)

Pamela S. Chestek
Chestek Legal
PO Box 2492
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-800-8033
pamela at chesteklegal.com
www.chesteklegal.com