Re: The GPL dream is finally over!

[David Kastrup]

Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> writes:

> LOL.
>
> David Kastrup wrote:
>
> (carefully snipping the links to word "vertrag" aka "contract" in
> relation to the GPL)
>
> [... in legal matters, the decisions of the courts ...]
>
> http://www.jbb.de/urteil_lg_frankfurt_gpl.pdf
> http://www.jbb.de/judgment_dc_frankfurt_gpl.pdf
>
> Let us count the number of "vertrag" and "Vertrag" occurrences in that
> decision (readers incapable of reading German in
> urteil_lg_frankfurt_gpl are invited to count the word "contract" in
> judgment_dc_frankfurt_gpl).  What is your count, GNUtian dak?

Does not matter really: the standards for checking compliance to a
license are practically the same as in contract law (just basic
efficiency of the law).  So once acceptance of the license is
established/admitted, the rest of the court case need not bother about
this distinction except where differences exist.  And there are some
differences to bona fide contracts after all: there can't be
"Vertragsstrafen", amounts of money to be paid for non-meeting of
contract conditions.  And there were some difference with regard to the
consequences of single invalid or untenable ("sittenwidrig") terms that
I don't remember right now.

So if courts use "contract" and "license" interchangeably in those areas
of the law where they _are_ interchangeable, that does not mean that
there is any particular reason why somebody should be hopping up and
down with glee.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum