[OSM-legal-talk] Are the Contributor Terms Irrevocable?

[John Smith]

There is nothing in the CTs about what happens if either party
breaches the contract

On 8/24/10, 80n <80n80n at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 8:25 PM, Francis Davey <fjmd1a at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 23 August 2010 19:58, 80n <80n80n at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > I'm curious about the meaning of the word "irrevocable" in the
>> contributor
>> > terms.
>> >
>> > Having examined a number of licenses that grant a similar range of
>> > rights
>> > (worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual) none of them include
>> > irrevocability.  They also all contain a termination section that is
>> usually
>> > engineered to allow termination in the event of a breach.
>> >
>> > Am I right in thinking that if OSMF committed a material breach of the
>> CTs
>> > then contributors would not be able to revoke their grant of rights?
>> Does
>> > the common law right to repudiate trump the inclusion of an
>> irrevocability
>> > clause?
>>
>> I assume you mean "fundamental breach"
>
>
> Yes, that was the term I was searching for.
>
>
>> since a material breach of
>> contract may not be sufficiently serious to permit the other party to
>> repudiate it. Off the top of my head I don't know any specific law on
>> the subject, but if OSMF's conduct struck at the very root of the
>> contract (i.e. it was a fundamental or repudiatory breach) then I
>> cannot see any reason why the contractual element of the CT should not
>> be revocable.
>>
>> I'm less sure about the licence element.
>>
>> --
>> Francis Davey
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> legal-talk mailing list
>> legal-talk at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk
>>
>

-- 
Sent from my mobile device