Rich Salz writes:
> > I'm not a lawyer either, however as a Manager of Software development
> > I have always been told by the legal boys, you MUST enforce a
> > copyright and/or patent in ALL cases or you can't enforce it in any.
> > US law requires equal treatment to all.
>
> Totally wrong.
Not according to our legal types. They continually beat me up
over just this. It also applies to NDA (Non-disclosure agreements)
as well.
You can do a different license with different people/companies
but if you grant a license that allows free, unrestricted use,
re-use, and passing on of the code, that is fair and valid to anyone
who obtained your code/product/etc. through that channel and you
can not enforce anything else.
Below is my summation of the jist of the legal-speak that is
being sent to RSA.....
Would love to provide people with exact copies of it but then
hey, your lawyers wouldn't make anything....--) You are on your
own to find and pay a patent/copyright lawyer to draw up your
papers.....
So, if RSA gave that license (and they did) to the US governemnt,
for use in a public-funded project, in which they knowingly agreed
that the code would be freely given away (as required by US law for
public-funded software-development), and the US goivernment license
plainly states I can use this "software" freely for commercial use
in it entirety or in any part, (and this is what happened), then
since I obtained my copy of the "license" from the US government
FORTEZZA project....RSA can NOT enforce any claims.
It also means anyone who obtained RSAREF-2.0 from RSA which
included a license that allowed "shareware" as well as unrestricted
not-for-profit use is free to use it. That includes ALL the pieces
contained in that library (IE MD5 as well) without further license.
It also means if "said" included license states I can use it in
a "for-profit" situation by signing the "commercial" license
(which is/was free at the time) then since said license did NOT
reserve the right of RSA to withdraw or terminate the license they
granted me when they supplied me RSAREF-2.0 they MUST honor it
under penality of law. Including civil damages.....for lost revenue
etc. if they try to stop your use of it.
Cheers,
Jim
--
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James B. Huber [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Genesis Controls, Inc. (V/O) (407) 671-0820
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