Branden Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Well, wouldn't you say that gratis QA, bugfixes, and enhancements to the > code under reciprocal terms count as a form of consideration? > > Of course, my logic doesn't apply to freely-licensed software that is > bug-free and never patched, but that's a pretty small domain.
I would go further and say that even if you didn't find any bugs, looking for them is still a useful service. A lot of things would break if licences were arbitrarily revocable. I haven't heard of it happening in practice, and I'm not sure the "consideration" argument from contract law has any validity. All it seems to be saying is that a typical free software licence isn't a valid contract because there is no consideration. But who's saying it has to be a contract? If someone infringes your copyright you sue them for copyright infringement not breach of contract. If they think that they haven't infringed because you gave them a licence, then presumably they produce the licence in court rather than countersue for breach of contract, so what's contract law got to do with it at all?
