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

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr>]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 10:54:37AM +0200, Simo Sorce wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-08-12 at 09:27, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> >      * "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,
> 
> The Free Software License correct name is "GNU GPL" not simply GPL
> 
> >        mostly because that
> >        country's law demands some type of liability or warranty from
> >        distributors or developers.
> 
> IANAL, but Italy as Germany requires liability for products sold, and
> always punish damages made on purpose.

made on purpose ... true anywhere

 In Italy, AFAIK, taht doesn't
> invalidate the hole license, but simply make the invalid clauses void,
> maintaining the rest of the license valid.
> IANAL and AFAIK again, I see all proprietary software license I've read
> claiming the same warranty clauses as the GNU GPL.

If warranty was required for all products that may cayse damage, I
think Springer and Elsevier should worry a lot, given the amount of
bullshit, potantially damaging if used without caution, that is
published in scientific papers.

The point is, software is knowledge, as much as anything else that one
expresses in writing.

Bernard


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