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As I said, the MPL is the first of the industrial-strength open source licenses. It deals with issues that are typically the province of licensing and legal professionals. But because several of these are critically important to license enforcement, I introduce them here. U.S. Government RightsThe MPL contains what must seem like cryptic instructions regarding U.S. government users of the Covered Code :
The Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) documents U.S. government policies and Chapter 48 of the C.F.R. contains Federal Acquisition Regulations. The relevant rules relating to patents, data, and copyrights are:
Considering the broad scope of any open source license, under which the Government's rights ”and everybody's rights ”to use, modify, reproduce, release, perform, display, or disclose computer software is unquestioned, it is hard to imagine why open source licenses would need a U.S. Government Rights provision like the one in the MPL. The United States government ”just like everybody else ”is being given a license to free software. What more or less do they need? Representations
The MPL is the first license to assure licensees that Modifications are original to the Contributors who submit them or are being distributed under the authority of the original author. This concept will appear as a Warranty of Provenance in the OSL/AFL licenses described in Chapter 9. Jurisdiction and VenueIn the event of a dispute about the MPL, California law applies. As specified in the license, any litigation will take place in the federal courts of the Northern District of California, with venue in Santa Clara, California. (MPL section 11.) I will discuss jurisdiction and venue, as well as governing law, in Chapter 12. Attorneys ' Fees and CostsIn the event of a dispute about the MPL, the losing party in court must pay reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. (MPL section 11.) What is reasonable is left to a court to decide. Software Is Not GoodsI noted very early in this book that it is important to distinguish personal property rights in the copy of the software acquired in a store, and property rights in the intellectual property embodied in the software. Software licensed under the MPL is specifically intended not to be subject to laws intended for the sale and distribution of goods in international commerce.
The most important reason for this provision is to ensure that international laws concerning implied warranties won't apply to this software. As the MPL and other open source licenses remind everyone, the software is provided on an "AS-IS" basis. (MPL section 7.) This provision may not be enforceable in all jurisdictions. Multiple-Licensed CodeI haven't yet explained why many open source licensors find it useful to license their software under more than one license. That topic will come in Chapter 11 when I discuss dual licensing models. The MPL makes it clear, however, that the Initial Developer may designate its software as being available under multiple licenses, and may specify which license, besides the MPL, is allowed. (Frequently the second license is the GPL.) Note that a Contributor under the MPL cannot, independently, elect to use a different license for his or her Modifications . Only the Initial Developer makes that choice. This point will be discussed in Chapter 10 when I address the problem of relicensing open source software. |
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