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On Fri, Apr 19, 2019 at 2:50 AM Robin H. Johnson <robbat2@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> What could the outcomes be? It would come down to penalties as well as |
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> the damages suffered by "A" in the publication of Work "X". |
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> |
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> The one thing you can be certain of is that lawyers and the legal system |
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> will walk away being paid, and somebody else's bank account will be |
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> emptier! |
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> |
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People need to keep in mind that there hasn't been a ton of litigation |
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over this stuff in the context of open source software projects. That |
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means that there is a ton of conjecture, and very little in the way of |
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actual case law. That doesn't mean that lawyers can't offer good |
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advice in general, based on part on case law in similar domains where |
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it exists, but it is very hard for any expert to offer certainty when |
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ultimately the decisions are in the hands of a court. |
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I'm not saying that legal advice isn't a good thing. I'm just pointing |
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out that the average lawyer doesn't deal with open source intellectual |
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property law, and the few experts that exist in this space are largely |
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going off of common/best practices. I'm sure most of them would have |
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said that you can't copyright an API until a court ruled that |
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Sun/Oracle did (a ruling many would disagree with, and which another |
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court might disagree with, but it is a ruling all the same). |
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Nobody can offer certainty in this space. You just do your best in |
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good faith and hope that being a good neighbor pays off. IMO our |
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biggest defense is that anybody going after us would look bad as long |
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as we're generally trying to do the right thing, and since we aren't |
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profiting from our code really there isn't much a suit would actually |
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accomplish since any code we publish is already public. Still, if |
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somebody wanted to throw a lot of money at suing us then it isn't like |
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we could afford a strong defense unless somebody came to our aid or a |
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lot of donors stepped up. |
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Again, not my call and I think there is plenty of room for |
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disagreement, but there is also something to be said about |
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professionalism in an environment where Boaty McBoatface isn't one of |
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your top committers... |
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-- |
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Rich |
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