[RFC] Serious Open Source (SOS) License -- Injunctive Relief clause

[Bruce Perens]

These are all interesting citations of cases not involving your license.

What I asked you for was to have YOUR license reviewed by a lawyer.

It's sort of deceptive to ask "Do you have any reason to believe that 
Yahoo's lawyers are incompetent" when Yahoo's lawyers have not reviewed 
your license, and have probably never seen it, and would not wish to be 
mentioned in a context that is meant to make people believe they support 
it. Please don't do that again.

While you may fully understand the cases mentioned below, I don't yet 
have any reason to believe that the text you have constructed for your 
license on the basis of those cases is  valid. Especially the part about 
the licensee consenting to the entry of a judgement against them, in 
advance of any such judgement.

There are lots of attorneys that help Open Source projects on a pro-bono 
basis. I don't believe it is supportive of Open Source developers for 
anyone to submit a license that has not had legal review, because those 
developers may be hurt when the license fails to work as expected in court.

While we have lawyers participating in the license-discuss mailing list, 
they will not help you because they are not your lawyer. You need to 
find a lawyer and work with one.

    Thanks

    Bruce

wtfpl user wrote:
> 2009/3/15 Bruce Perens <bruce at perens.com>:
>   
>> A really Serious License would have proper legal review by at least one
>> qualified attorney. Can you get that?
>> I'd like to hear from your attorney a credible explanation regarding the
>> effectiveness of this language.
>>     
>
> Well, see for example
>
> http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=ia&vol=app\20030430\02-0836&invol=1
>
> "A company appeals the district court’s issuance of injunctive relief
> pursuant to the terms of a contract.  AFFIRMED."
>
> See also:
>
> http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/messenger/messengerapi/messengerapi-2142.html
>
> Do you have any reason to believe that Yahoo's lawyers are incompetent?
>
> "You agree that monetary damages alone would be insufficient to
> compensate Yahoo! from Your breach of these TOU, acknowledge that
> irreparable harm would result from breach of these TOU, and hereby
> consent to the entering of an order for injunctive relief to prevent
> or stop any such breach or threatened breach, and the entering of an
> order for specific performance to compel Your performance of any
> obligations under these TOU."
>
> Here's another example:
>
> http://www.techagreements.com/agreement-preview.aspx?num=311465
>
> "Seller agrees that damages alone would be insufficient to compensate
> Purchaser for a breach of this Agreement, acknowledges that
> irreparable harm would result from a breach of this Agreement, and
> consents to the entering of an order for  injunctive relief to prevent
> a breach or further breach, and the entering of an order for specific
> performance to compel performance of any obligations under this
> Agreement."
>
> and another one:
>
> http://www.docstoc.com/docs/3388921/how-to-trademark-a-name
>
> "Licensee agrees that damages alone may be insufficient to compensate
> Johanson for a breach of this License, acknowledges that irreparable
> harm may result from a breach of this License, and, provided that the
> legal requirements for injunctive relief and specific performance are
> met, consents to the entering of an order for injunctive relief to
> prevent a breach or further breach or any further action which could
> cause some loss or dilution of Johanson’s goodwill, reputation, or
> rights in any Johanson Marks, and the entering of an order for
> specific performance to compel performance of any obligations under
> this License."
>