Walter Landry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Henning Makholm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Scripsit Walter Landry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> > Nathanael Nerode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> > > "This license is governed by California law" >> >> > > OK. >> >> > > "and both of us >> > > agree that for any dispute arising out of or relating to this Software, >> > > that jurisdiction and venue is proper in San Francisco or Alameda >> > > counties." >> >> > > No we don't. This is non-free. >> >> > I fail to see the difference. >> >> There's a big difference between choice of law and choice of venue. >> >> If it *just* said "governed by California law", and the licensor >> decided to file a frivolous lawsuit against me (think >> tentacles-of-evil test if you will), they would still have to do it in >> *my* home court, and they would then have to explain to *my* local >> judge that California law interprets "accompany the copy with full >> source code" as implicitly including an obligation to pet a cat. > > They wouldn't have to file the lawsuit in your local court. In fact, > if they tried, claiming that you violated California law, the judge > would throw it out, as the judge has no jurisdition over California > law. The judge may not even be able to read California law, and so is > not capable of rendering judgements based on his understanding of it. > > Rather, they would file in California court, because that is where > California law is decided. The whole point of choice of law clauses > is to force everything to happen in a particular place.
Um, I'm not a lawyer and this is outside even my layman's-understanding of the law, but I'm certain I've seen cases proceed in the courts of location X under the laws of location Y, because a violation of a contract happened in X -- or the parties or tort are somehow in X, such that it has jurisdiction, but the contract insists on the laws of Y. So this doesn't force it to happen in a particular place, it just encourages the courts to virtualize their judges. -Brian -- Brian Sniffen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
