http://www.fsf.org/news/dont-depend-on-mono

[Adam Jackson]

On Tue, 2009-07-07 at 21:11 +0100, Rui Miguel Silva Seabra wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 07, 2009 at 04:06:02PM +0200, drago01 wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 12:02 PM, Rui Miguel Silva Seabra wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jul 07, 2009 at 11:07:52AM +0200, drago01 wrote:
> > >> > The promise makes quite sure to tell you you have no right[1], but you can
> > >> > infringe that they won't sue *you*[2].
> > >> >
> > >> > [1] => means you can't do it with GPL
> > >>
> > >> It explicitly grant this right.
> > >
> > > What you're explicitly told s that you won't be sued if you do so without the right.
> > >
> > > And you have no right!
> > 
> > If I told you "you can do whatever you want with this and I won't sue
> > you" or "you have the right to implement this"
> > 
> > Where exactly is the difference?
> 
> In one you can be sued (because it's not only Microsoft who can do that in some
> jurisdictions) and you're doing something which is illegal.

At the risk of getting bogged down in details: My understanding is that,
in such countries, in order to have any standing in such a case, the
third party bringing the suit against you would have to have some claim
to a grievance against you as a result of your illegal action against
Microsoft.  I would be delighted to hear a scenario in which you think
this could arise.

Also, please do remember that it is _not_ in itself illegal to
distribute software that embodies someone else's patent.  It's only
illegal to do so without the owner's consent.  If this is _not_ the case
in some country, then everyone in that country needs to stop using the
Linux kernel right now, because - to pick a trivial example - RCU is
definitely patented.

I mean, basically you're asserting that - for whatever bizarro country
you're talking about - not only can you not waive your own property
rights, but other people can be sued for accepting your waiver at face
value.  Now, there do exist a handful of countries that haven't accepted
the Berne Convention, but they tend to be countries with an even weaker
notion of copyright...

- ajax
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