Re: [Fsfe-uk] GPL licence untested, authors could lose their rights in UK

[Ian Lynch]

On Mon, 2006-04-10 at 16:57 +0100, Alex Hudson wrote:
>                 "Michael Peeters, a partner at Pinsent Masons, the law firm
>         behind OUT-LAW.COM, says warranties as to the performance and
>         even the title to the software could be implied into open source
>         licences by a British court."
>         
>         http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/10/opensource_hidden_warranties/
> 
> Happily, you can register at their free breakfast briefing to hear more
> about this important issue.
> 
> (In all seriousness, they are probably right about warranties to some
> extent; I would like to see a Judge imply title given a licence
> though... ;)
> 
> I've asked to be let in for the 25th in London, I rather suspect the
> talk will be somewhat less exciting than the "GPL authors lose their
> rights!" spin.

On the same basis, a judge could say that a proprietary license wasn't
reasonable and unilaterally give more rights to users. This has happened
in the USA with respect to transfer of licenses so I don;t see anything
particularly new in any of this.

-- 
Ian Lynch
www.theINGOTs.org
www.opendocumentfellowship.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk