gnu-misc-discuss
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Effect of transfer of copyright on free software licenses?


From: Alexander Terekhov
Subject: Re: Effect of transfer of copyright on free software licenses?
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:03:57 +0200

Hyman Rosen wrote:
> 
> Rjack wrote:
> > Professor Micheal Davis of Clevland State University Law School:
> > A unilateral grant of permission is a contract; we even have a
>  > legal term for such a situation and it is, unsurprisingly, called
>  > a unilateral contract.
> 
> Wikipedia says
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilateral_contract#Bilateral_v._unilateral_contracts>
>      In a unilateral contract, only one party to the contract
>      makes a promise.
>      ...
>      An offer of a unilateral contract may often be made to many
>      people (or 'to the world') by means of an advertisement. In
>      that situation, acceptance will only occur on satisfaction
>      of the condition.
>      ...
>      In unilateral contracts, the requirement that acceptance be
>      communicated to the offeror is waived. The offeree accepts by
>      performing the condition, and the offeree's performance is
>      also treated as the price, or consideration, for the offeror's
>      promise.
> 
> Which all sounds just like the GPL. We call the GPL a license to
> emphasize its unilateral nature.

The GPL is as "unilateral" as Stallman is a sane person.

"A bilateral contract, is an agreement in which each of the parties to
the contract makes a promise or promises to the other party. For
example, in a contract for the sale of a home, the buyer promises to pay
the seller $200,000 in exchange for the seller's promise to deliver
title to the property."

In GPL case the promise on the licensor's side is the grant of rights
which is a promise not to sue for copyright infringement. The promise on
the licensee side is compliance with contractual requirements (aka
contractual "covenants") stated in the license contract.

In contrast, 

"In a unilateral contract, only one party to the contract makes a
promise. A typical example is the reward contract: A promises to pay a
reward to B if B finds A's dog. B is not obliged to find A's dog, but A
is obliged to pay the reward to B if B finds the dog. "

In other words, party B (the offeree) can't possibly BREACH the contract
since where is no obligation to perform for party B. 

Constrast it with the GPL where the offeree may well breach the
contract.

See IBM's SIXTH COUNTERCLAIM against SCO and

http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/MySQLcounterclaim.pdf

"COUNT VIII Breach of Contract (GPL License)".

regards,
alexander.

-- 
http://gng.z505.com/index.htm 
(GNG is a derecursive recursive derecursion which pwns GNU since it can 
be infinitely looped as GNGNGNGNG...NGNGNG... and can be said backwards 
too, whereas GNU cannot.)


reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]