[plug] no more lawsuits disclaimer idea.

[Cameron Patrick]

Shayne O'Neill wrote:

> I wonder if people could insert a line like this;-
> 
> "By distributing this product, you have agreed any pending legal suits you
> have against the distribution or use of GPL'ed products against the
> author or any third party are automatically resolved in the author or the
> third parties favor. This does not apply to lawsuits designed to enforce
> the GPL, but does apply to lawsuits to enforce other copyrights or
> patents."
> 
> ..in there free software licences for stuff they wrote. Would it violate
> there GPL?

I think that would be GPL-incompatible.  Clause 6 of the GPL states:
"You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients'
exercise of the rights granted herein."  There is nothing stopping you
from distributing your own software under "GPL + Shayne's paragraph"
(so long as you didn't incorporate any GPL-licensed code into it), but
to re-license, e.g. Linux this way would be impractical as all of the
copyright holders would have to give their permission.

This phrasing would also be considered non-free according to the
Debian Free Software Guidelines.

> Would the "FSF can upgrade your licence clause to V3" clause be
> invoked to add this line in current GPL products by the FSF.

Could be, but there are two snags:

1) The usual bumph states -

        This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
        it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
        the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
        any later version.

   so people would still have the option of taking the original
   (version 2) licence.

2) Some software, (such as the Linux kernel) doesn't have the "any
   later version" phrasing, it's intentionally licensed under version
   2 only.

Cameron.