Re: responses to licensing discussion

Ned Lilly wrote:
>
> That chose of
> law/jurisdiction, BTW, is different from choice of *venue* - Sevo
> Stille worried that he might have to travel to Virginia for his day
> in court. The two things are separate.

In the US. In Europe, you usually cannot choose a jurisdiction other
than that of the venue. A choice of jurisdiction could be considered an
acceptance of the accompanying venue. This may not matter much in a
liabilities case, as consumer protection rights will often grant them a
local court whatever the license may say. But I am wary of the
consequences for any situation where I might want to sue an American
company.

> On a related note, if PostgreSQL is being marketed in the US, it
> will be subject to US law - regardless of where the project says
> it's "based."

Indeed it will be subject to local law whereever it is "marketed", if
the latter can apply to freeware. But the opponent might have the right
to accept my choice of venue as stated in the license, and I'd rather
not make any statement that could imply that to be overseas.

> Previous contributions: A couple of people asked, ok, so this is a
> proposed solution for future code contributions - what about the
> existing stuff? We'd suggest that anyone who is currently
> contributing patches could say, in effect, "this goes retroactively
> for everything else I've committed in the past" - which granted
> wouldn't get us all the way there, but probably close to 80%.
> Again, the goal is indemnifcation of the developers who aren't
> coverered as Berkeley-era contributors. Our lawyers tell us this is
> do-able if people want to do it. Thoughts?

The contributors certainly could release their hold on any rights they
may still have. But while you can waive your rights retrocatively, you
usually cannot reclaim a right you've already given away, without the
explicit consent of the other side. We might end up with all
disadvantages the change brings holding up in court, while the changes
to our advantage might be ruled out on the base of the previous license.

Sevo

--
Sevo Stille
sevo(at)ip23(dot)net