[OSM-talk] OSM license change: A license to kill? -> How to make a nightmare come true!

[Matt Amos]

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 8:09 PM, Russ Nelson <russ at cloudmade.com> wrote:
> On Mar 5, 2009, at 2:54 PM, Matt Amos wrote:
>>  us trying to read a complex license
>> without comments is like lawyers trying to read complex code without
>> comments.
>
> They're mostly hard to read because they're tedious in their detail.  Legal
> writing isn't actually THAT impenetrable, if you can stay awake (no,
> seriously, I can only read 2-3 licenses at a time before I start to nod off.
>  Takes me DAYS to read all the OSI-approved licenses).

and, as has been pointed out by steve and others, you can't 100%
understand a license unless you also understand the case law. so it
seems to me that some extra information (comments, advice - call it
what you will) is needed for those of us without 7-8 years of law
school and an army of paralegals.

> Yes, well, since a legal document is written for a customer, the lawyer
> explains it in confidence to the customer.  Everyone else is supposed to
> rely on the text of the license itself.  Or, at least, that's my experience
> of how it's supposed to go.  I may be wrong.

i guess its difficult having a whole community with varied opinions as
a "customer". with a single customer the question "well, what do you
want it to be like?" can be sensibly and quickly answered... does
anyone know if a similar situation arises in class action lawsuits?

cheers,

matt