Re: [Patents] GPL May Be Unenforceable Under German Law

[João Miguel Neves <joao@silvaneves.org>]

FUD, plain and simple.

The day someone presents me a software license that doesn't have the the
warranty disclaimer (fro free software or non-free software) I'll assume
otherwise. It hasn't happen yet, and I've read too many licenses.

Second, this should be posted in another list, like
discussion@fsfeurope.org. This has NO connection whatsoever with
software patents. It's just some people that are confusing copyright and
contract law (once again).

A Ter, 2003-08-12 às 08:27, Gregory Aharonian escreveu:
>      * "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.
-- 
João Miguel Neves <joao@silvaneves.org>

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