Joe Buck wrote:
On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 05:05:47PM -0700, Basile Starynkevitch wrote:
The real issue is not the copyright disclaimer, it is the legal terms
inside. Maybe U.Illinois don't use words like "unlumited liaibility".
Where are you getting this term "unlimited liability" from?
I think that your legal people made a mistake, or no company
would ever agree to contribute code to the FSF.
Perhaps someone made a mistake, and it could be me (because I don't
understand lawyer language). Apparently, the sensitive sentence in the
document is something like "Developer will indemnify FSF for all losses
if the claim is not spurious".
In my remembering, the "all losses" was interpreted by someone as
unlimited liability ... Lawyers are usually scared by the "all losses"
phrase. I remember someone was very angry, but I forgot the details.
But I have no ideas of the terms used in other contracts (between FSF &
other contributors' employers).
And I am not a lawyer. And the lawyers at CEA -my employer- might know
better French law that the US ones. And I never understood why GCC is
convered by US laws only. It could happen that a small majority of GCC
contributors are not US citizens.
However, I would believe that most GCC contributors do not actively
check their patch against the US patent system (because I perceive the
US patent system to be very ill w.r.t. software). I confess I don't do
that - it would be a full time & boring job.
Of course all opinions are mines only, and I am not a lawyer.
Cheers.
--
Basile STARYNKEVITCH http://starynkevitch.net/Basile/
email: basile<at>starynkevitch<dot>net mobile: +33 6 8501 2359
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*** opinions {are only mines, sont seulement les miennes} ***
