German software licensing law

Ben Finney ben at benfinney.id.au
Tue Sep 27 12:35:35 UTC 2005


On 27-Sep-2005, Rui Miguel Seabra wrote:
> As frontiers dilute more and more, the need for a global language
> arises.

No more than the need for a global government. Languages are a very
human activity; they appear, change, and adapt to the purposes they're
put to.

> English is probably the simplest of the most spoken languages

This must be some strange new usage of the word "simple" I hadn't
previously been aware of.

> (although by far not the most spoken), so it would be a shame if two
> people on one country couldn't make an agreement in another language
> because of the law.

English is not a global language; like most languages with large
numbers of users, it is fractured into dozens of incompatible
dialects. Unlike some other languages, there is no recognised
authority saying what the language means. These two facts together
make it a poor choice for legal documents intended to have global
reach.

-- 
 \       "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. |
  `\        The pessimist fears it is true."  -- J. Robert Oppenheimer |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney <ben at benfinney.id.au>
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