[copyleft-next] copyleft-next patent commons?

Pamela Chestek pchestek at gmail.com
Fri Feb 22 19:02:59 UTC 2013


On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 12:25 PM, Richard Fontana
<fontana at sharpeleven.org>wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 04:50:54PM +0000, Gervase Markham wrote:
> > So:
> >
> > 10. Termination
> >
> >     Your license grants under section 1 are automatically terminated if
> >     You
> > ...
> >     b) initiate a patent infringement litigation claim (excluding
> >        declaratory judgment actions, counterclaims, and cross-claims)
> >        alleging that any work under this License directly or indirectly
> >        infringes any patent.
> >
> > In other words, if you sue someone over a patent in a copyleft-nexted
> > work, you lose rights to use all copyleft-nexted works.
>

The language you propose doesn't have the effect you describe nor do I
think you can accomplish it at all. Licenses are personal, so "this
License" would be interpreted as this instance of the copyleft-next license
for this software (or author's contribution), not all software anywhere
licensed under copyleft-next.  In theory you could cure that defect with
some redrafting, but I'm not sure there's a way to accomplish what you'd
like with a license. I can't say "if you breach my license you don't get to
use Bob's work" because there is no privity between Bob and me so I have no
legal right to dictate what happens to Bob's work.  Perhaps somehow you
could craft some language that essentially requires that all the Bobs in
the world who use copyleft-next agree that they will act in concert, but
even if you get past that significant drafting hurdle (Richard?), query
whether you're getting into antitrust problems by creating a group boycott.

Pam
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