RE: GPL violation ?

[Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu>]

On Thu, 6 May 2004, Dave Korn wrote:

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Christopher Faylor
> > Sent: 06 May 2004 16:56
>
> > On Wed, May 05, 2004 at 07:08:59PM +0100, Vince Hoffman wrote:
> > >This comes up on here every now and then and if i didnt
> > think it was a
> > >possible issue i wouldnt have brought it up.  Mind you IANAL
>
> http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#YANALATEYHSMBSI :) lol!
>
>   However, the real point I wanted to mention is that
> http://cygwin.com/assign.txt seems almost certain to be invalid under UK
> law, and quite possibly under US law too.

<http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#YANALATEYHSMBSI> (evil laugh)

>   You can't have a contract without an exchange of something of value.
> Hence the line about "For good and valuable consideration, receipt of which
> I acknowledge".  But *what* consideration?  AFAICS, since nobody's ever been
> paid so much as a wooden nickel for their cygwin contributions, every claim
> to have been in receipt of such consideration is false, and so every single
> one of the supposed contracts is currently in breach and therefore none of
> the assignments are valid.

You do get a T-shirt for filing the assignment, which is intended to cover
all of your subsequent contributions.

>   I'm slightly alarmed to notice this and wonder what the RH legal team have
> to say about it?  I think the RH lawyers may need to spend some time sending
> people peppercorns through the post, along with a letter apologising for the
> late payment!
>
> [ Here are some references for anyone who wants to research this themselves
> a bit:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=peppercorn+rent+contract+validity
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=sufficiency+of+exchange+contract+validity+peppercorn
>
> http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/c/consideration.html
> An illusory promise, or one which the promisor actually has no obligation to
> keep, does not count as consideration. The promise must be real and
> unconditional.
>
> http://law.wustl.edu/Organizations/SBA/Outlines/Contracts%20-%20OUTLINEBIG.htm
> b. Saying there is consideration is not consideration, neither is a seal.
> Nominal consideration which means nothing is not consideration.  ]

In addition to the physical payment of a T-shirt, the developers get the
goodwill of the community, although I don't think this could be counted as
"consideration" under the above definition, no matter how good and
valuable it is.
	Igor
-- 
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