Re: documentation on un-enforceability of ethical licenses? (was Re: License Review Request - Anu Initiative
Pamela Chestek <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.licenses.open-source.general |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On 2/6/2024 7:39 AM, Stefano Maffulli wrote: > Question for the wider group: Can you point me to a document (legal or > otherwise) that argues the unenforceability of ethical clauses, like > these ones? I don't know that there is such a document, at least not under US law. We take a very liberal attitude towards what type of obligations parties can agree to. In the US, contracts are only rarely unenforceable, such as a contract for criminal activity, unconscionability, or impossiblity. It is perfectly fine in the US to impose ethics terms in a license. Instead I think it's a practical problem. Licenses are not self-enforcing, someone has to bring a legal claim for enforcement. Only the licensor can enforce the contract (unless the license has a third party beneficiary, in which case the third party can enforce it only insofar as that party's interest is impacted). Is the licensor going to become the ethics police of the world, committing resources to go after every use that breaches the ethics provision? Pam Pamela S. Chestek Chestek Legal 300 Fayetteville Street Unit 2492 Raleigh, NC 27602 [email protected] (919) 800-8033 www.chesteklegal.com _______________________________________________ The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Official statements by the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address. License-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org