On 12/18/06, Mariano Iglesias <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I don't understand something. If licenses such as MIT, GPL or something are > not protecting you against this kind of attackes, what in the name are the > other open source projects doing towards this? It is hard for me to believe > that all of them are subject to this potential legal issues.
Actually the license is not at issue here. The licenses on most FOSS software normally only cover issues regarding ownership and distriibution of the code, works derived from the code, and modifications to the code. There is no question that software licenses, at least to my knowledge the BSD and GPL, *will* stand up in court. But only if the concerns in question are what I have enumerated above. This has been proven in one court case at least for the GPL. See: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/53212.html - the D-Link case. The main concern, at least for my employer, is someone or some company coming up with a submarine patent on some crucial part of CakePHP and then using that patent to harass or sue CakePHP users. The MIT license that covers CakePHP code only covers ownership, distribution, derived works and distribution of derived works, modifications and distribution of modifications, and of course the "NO WARRANTY" clause. It does not matter if the holder of the submarine patent is *not* a contributor to CakePHP who has signed the CSL or CSSL. He just has to hold a patent, make a case for its enforcement and then use it to harass or sue users. Note that this is not only a concern for CakePHP, this also applies to other FOSS projects as well. Anyway, I have already gotten the response from gwoo that pretty much covers most of my employer's concerns. Maybe when all has been said and done and I do manage to convince my employer that it is indeed safe to use CakePHP for his site, I will post an article on my blog that will help others who will be in the same boat as I am. Regards. -- _nimrod_a_abing_ [?] http://abing.gotdns.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cake PHP" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
