MJ Ray wrote: > On 2004-05-13 18:09:47 +0100 Josh Triplett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > >> MJ Ray wrote: >>> Why should this software's licence, not directly involved in the >>> cases >>> above, terminate? >> This software's license doesn't terminate. The patent license from >> all >> of the software's contributors not to sue you over patents terminates. > > I already wrote I'm only considering the patent licence, so let's drop > the wording defence. We agree that the patent licence terminates. > Therefore, the patent licence is non-free. > >> A license that gives no indication about patents at all would give you >> fewer rights than this license > > Sure, but a patent licence might not be needed because there are no > patents covering the software. If there are patents covering it, then > having no patent licence => non-free. > > Can we reasonably expect that anyone licensing us some patents in > order to use their software has such patents? Not when it's written that generally.
> If not, why don't they > declare that instead of licensing a nothing to us? IBM has too damn many patents and probably didn't want to bother determining which ones might apply to what software. :-/ >> Given that our standard position on patents is to ignore them unless a >> particular patent holder is threatening us with lawsuits, I see no >> reason why we shouldn't apply the same policy here. > > Our standard position on patents is usually for the case where we have > no patent licence and don't know that we require one. This is a case > where we are being offered a non-free patent licence and a free > copyright licence. Why aren't these two seperate licences? Then we > would know whether we require a patent licence by whether it is > offered, which would make it easier to spot software non-free for > swpat lands ;-) --- I just spotted a clause which I *really* don't like, however: "Each party waives its rights to a jury trial in any resulting litigation." That's not a legitimate requirement of a free software license, is it? -- There are none so blind as those who will not see.
