Request for approval: EUPL (European Union Public Licence) Questions

[Russ Nelson]

Brian Behlendorf writes:
 > > recommendation to complement Article 13 as follows: "so far this is 
 > > required and reasonable, without reducing the scope of the rights 
 > > granted by the Licence.”
 > 
 > It doesn't matter to me how well-intentioned the modifications are, new 
 > language (aside from changes in names of copyright holder and other 
 > neutral data) always means the potential for a change in the balance of 
 > rights between licensor and licensee, must trigger a resubmission to OSI, 
 > and must not automatically apply to prior EUPL-licensed works.

Certainly any change in a license requires re-approval.

The automatic binding is even more problematic than anybody has said.
It's the license *steward* who is issuing the new license version.  So
a licensor may be licensing their software under the EUPL, only to
find that their users have a new set of rights that the licensor never
intended them to have.

It doesn't matter at all that the EUPL steward only intends to make
reasonable changes.  The problem is that the licensor is agreeing to
agree with whatever changes the EUPL makes.  My understanding of the
law says that that is not an enforcible provision of a contract.  You
can't agree to agree -- you have to agree.  If you don't agree at the
time, then there's no meeting of the minds, and no contract.

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