GPL May Be Unenforceable Under German Law

[Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com>]

     * "GPL May Be Unenforceable Under German Law"
       IDG News Service (08/06/03); Blau, John
       Legal expert Gerald Spindler warns that the open-source General
       Public License (GPL) is not valid in Germany, mostly because that
       country's law demands some type of liability or warranty from
       distributors or developers. Spindler wrote a 123-page study for
       the Verband der Softwareindustrie Deutschland, a industry group
       critical of open-source software with whom he claims no
       significant ties. Certain unalterable principles in German law,
       such as the need for liability and warranty, are not provided for
       under GPL, making that license not applicable in Germany. Spindler
       says the question of liability is complex and requires further
       work to determine whether employees, companies, or development
       participants share liability or whether one party is more liable
       than others; similarly, software that is based on previous
       open-source work is affected. Spindler explains that only in the
       past 18 months has the legal community focused on open-source
       software and its ramifications under law, and businesses might
       want to consider that no entity is clearly liable for the product.
       Although the German government has embraced open-source software,
       open source has not really had a chance to be properly addressed
       in the law. Doing so would entail writing the GPL in German and
       adapt it to both German and EU legal standards. The existing
       liability clause needs to be revisited to take into account the
       interests of users, developers, and competitors.