Re: Open source licenses are /actually/ contracts?!?

[Alexander Terekhov]

Tim Tyler wrote:
[...]
> *If* the user agreed to a contract by simply copying,
> the world would be full of court cases where
> SlimeSoft had included in the small print of its
> license agreement:
> 
> "And by the act of copying this software, you hereby
>   agree to sell all your worldly goods and deposit the
>   proceeds in swiss bank account #xxxxxxxx."
> 
> Users do not agree to *anything* by the act of
> copying something.  The worst that can happen
> is that they can subsequently be sued for copyright
> violation - since the user can simply claim that they
> never bothered to read the license.  Since copyright

Suppose that value of "your worldly goods" is less than damages for 
copyright infringement. Why wouldn't you bring such license as a 
defense to claim of copyright infringement? I certainly would.

regards,
alexander.

--
"The revolution might take significantly longer than anticipated."

                                     -- The GNU Monk Harald Welte