Richard Kenner wrote:
This is very tedious.
Indeed it is. I'm going to respond to this and your next message
simultaneously and then refer you to a text on contract law.
A license does not require the meeting of minds.
Yes, it does, since it's a contract. But "a meeting of minds" is just a
fancy way of saying that all the parties agree to its terms. And they
clearly do.
There's no interaction. There's no evidence of any communication, let
alone any evidence of an agreement. You cannot even identify the parties.
Of course software licenses have consideration: one party is getting to use
software and the other party is giving the conditions (very roughly
speaking) under which that software can be used.
No, no, no. A consideration is an exchange of value. It's part of a
contract. A license is not a contract.
A license is a contract. "Consideration" is an exchange of *things*
of value. The "thing" need not neccessary be tangible. For example a
contract between two companies who each agree to link to the other on
their website has consideration even though nothing of tangible value
changes hnds: the link is of value to the receiving company and in
exchange for receiving that value, it provides the reciprocal value.
I've said above what the consideration for a software license is.
There's no exchange of value. A license (such as the GPL) grants a
permission for someone to do something under specified conditions. It's
unilateral -- the receiving party is anonymous. Agreement to abide by
the conditions of the license is (a) not a meeting of the minds, it's a
condition of the license, and (b) it's not a valuable consideration, again
it is a condition of the license.
I'm done with this discussion. It's not going anywhere.
--
Michael Eager [EMAIL PROTECTED]
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306 650-325-8077
