this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024
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Asklemmy
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You can write any conditions you want into a license.
That's what actually differentiates proprietary licenses from open-source licenses.
Open-source licenses follow certain rules, and you usually select an existing license, so therefore they can be reasoned about, collectively. People often implicitly mean "OSI-approved license", when they talk of "open-source licenses".
Proprietary licenses, on the other hand, can contain whatever bullcrap you want.
Having said that, I'm not a lawyer, but I imagine, if you also called your license "GNU General Public License", then a case could probably be made in court, that your license is deliberately confusing.
Oracle Java uses a license called "GPL with Classpath Exception", so it's definitely possible to create derivatives of the GPL and name them appropriately.
Wow, I've definitely seen that before, but I never realized how wild that is. So many companies will start drooling like a dumbass when anything contains the GPL.
So, it's not like they can't ever use GPL software, most do use Linux knowingly or unknowingly. But if you use GPL software in a way the legal department hasn't seen before, they'll always feel uneasy about it.
Frankly, I'm surprised that Java gained any traction in the corporate world at all, then.
The original version of Java was proprietary. Sun later open-sourced large parts of it but they kept selling a version of Java with a proprietary license. There were also random kerfuffles over the years with IBM and Red Hat who wanted to sell open-source Java into large organizations without giving a cut to Sun/Oracle.
So you're telling me there's a chance
This one would be like a "GNU General Pubic License."
They can't just contain "any bullcrap you want".
Contracts need to follow the set of rules in your country that dictate what can and can't be enforced. It's an entire branch of law.
If you try and pull something like OP is suggesting, the worst case scenario is that it may render the contract an unlawful document and therefore void.
I imagine in most places things like what OP is suggesting would get laughed out of court.
You can have some fun though. I heard of one guy who, as a recruitment bonus, insisted that it be included in his contract that he receive an office desk made entirely of Lego.
You can write almost any bull crap you want, as long as it obviously doesn't go up against some law and has the main contract elements.
An unenforceable aspect of a contract, won't void the entire contract if it goes to court, unless it's the main aspect of the contract.
Well that depends on the laws where you live but if you actually want the contract to be enforceable then yes, it needs to follow certain rules, and no, you can't just "write any bullcrap".
But you can write whatever crap you want, it can't just be the basis of the entire contract.
Let's say I write a contract for you to supply me bricks for 10 years at a firm fixed price cost of $1 a brick, with an order limit of 100 million bricks. I could then add in elsewhere "if more than 5% of the bricks are damaged, you must supply me with one living unicorn."
That whole contract doesn't become void because unicorns do not exist. In fact, if it went to court a lawyer might even argue with a straight face that the supplier must provide something of equal value to a unicorn.