On 13-Feb-2007, Xavi Drudis Ferran wrote:
Hello. Argh. I've written too much again, i'll try to underline some sections with "!>" so you can skip the rest:
Unfortunately this makes it look like you're including text from a different message (i.e. quoting another message), and is more confusing. Perhaps judicious use of blank lines would better offset the sections of your message.
!>The license is all right with me, until I get to an strange !>twist: !> !> The European Commission may put into force translations and/or binding new !> versions of this Licence, so far this is required and reasonable. New versions of the !> Licence will be published with a unique version number. The new version of the !> Licence becomes binding for You as soon as You become aware of its publication.
I've seen similar clauses in some propietary licenses (for demos or betas at least).
The drafter of the copyright license has a strong motive to increase the control held by the copyright holder, at the expense of the recipient of the work. This is just one expression of that.
Proprietary licenses claim a great range of things for the copyright holder, and in many cases these are overreaching and of dubious legality.
On the other hand, a change in the law is all it takes to make these overreaching clauses binding, at least to the extent that they would be very expensive to defend against.
!> That wouldn't be free software
You're right, for the reason you state below.
I'm relieved to find that confirmed in the free software definition at http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html :
In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be irrevocable as long as you do nothing wrong; if the developer of the software has the power to revoke the license, without your doing anything to give cause, the software is not free.
"You can have these freedoms until I decide otherwise for my own reasons" is not a grant of free license. We should only accept freedoms that are granted in the presumption of good faith; i.e. that if we give no cause to have the freedoms restricted, they will not be restricted.