EUPL v 1.0 revokable ?

[Ben Finney]

On 13-Feb-2007, Xavi Drudis Ferran wrote:
> Hello. Argh. I've written too much again, i'll try to underline some 
> sections with "!>" so you can skip the rest:

Unfortunately this makes it look like you're including text from a 
different message (i.e. quoting another message), and is more 
confusing. Perhaps judicious use of blank lines would better offset 
the sections of your message.

> !>The license is all right with me, until I get to  an strange 
> !>twist: !>
> !>    The European Commission may put into force translations and/or binding new
> !>    versions of this Licence, so far this is required and reasonable. New versions of the
> !>    Licence will be published with a unique version number. The new version of the
> !>    Licence becomes binding for You as soon as You become aware of its publication.
> 
> I've seen similar clauses in some propietary licenses (for demos or 
> betas at least). 

The drafter of the copyright license has a strong motive to increase 
the control held by the copyright holder, at the expense of the 
recipient of the work. This is just one expression of that.

Proprietary licenses claim a great range of things for the copyright 
holder, and in many cases these are overreaching and of dubious 
legality.

On the other hand, a change in the law is all it takes to make these 
overreaching clauses binding, at least to the extent that they would 
be very expensive to defend against.

> !> That wouldn't be free software

You're right, for the reason you state below.

> I'm relieved to find that confirmed in the free software definition at
> http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html :
> 
>    In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be irrevocable as
>    long as you do nothing wrong; if the developer of the software has the
>    power to revoke the license, without your doing anything to give
>    cause, the software is not free.

"You can have these freedoms until I decide otherwise for my own 
reasons" is not a grant of free license. We should only accept 
freedoms that are granted in the presumption of good faith; i.e. that 
if we give no cause to have the freedoms restricted, they will not be 
restricted.

-- 
 \          "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to |
  `\      another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one!'"  -- |
_o__)                                                       C.S. Lewis |
Ben Finney <ben at benfinney.id.au>
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