[Python-Dev] Re: Python 2.0 in Debian

[Tim Peters]

[Gregor Hoffleit]
> I didn't even knew there will be a 1.6.1 release. Will there be a
> change in the license ?

There will be a 1.6.1 release if and only if CNRI and the FSF reach
agreement.  If and when that happens, we (PythonLabs) will build a 1.6.1
release for CNRI with the new license, and then re-release the then-current
Python as a derivative of 1.6.1.  But it's premature to talk about that,
because nothing is settled yet, and it doesn't address the license inherited
from BeOpen.com.

MAL, a choice-of-clause clause won't work any better for you (in the FSF's
eyes) than it did for CNRI.

Gregor, legal language is ambiguous.  That's why virtually all *commercial*
licenses in the US contain a choice-of-law clause ("of the 50 possible
meanings of this phrase, I intended this specific one").  *If* and when
somebody actually prevails in suing an open source provider due to the lack
of choice-of-law, non-commercial providers will have a lot to think about
here (it's easy to be complacent when you've never been burned).

Here's a paradox:  the FSF objects to choice-of-law because they don't want
the language interpreted by the courts in the Kingdom of Unfreedonia (who
could effectively negate the GPL's intent).  CNRI objects to not having
choice-of-law because they don't want the language interpreted by the courts
in the Kingdom of Unlimited Liability (who could effectively negate all of
CNRI's liability disclaimers).  So in that sense, they're both seeking
similar ends.  That's why there's still hope for compromise.

it-would-be-interesting-if-it-were-happening-to-somebody-else<wink>-ly
    y'rs  - tim