Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jpl-devvax!lwall
From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: rms says...
Message-ID: <11311@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 5 Feb 91 18:33:18 GMT
References: <21327@yunexus.YorkU.CA> <4607@lib.tmc.edu> <27A6E9BA.2E94@tct.uucp> <1991Feb5.011604.3849@NCoast.ORG>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 31

In article <1991Feb5.011604.3849@NCoast.ORG> allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR) writes:
: As quoted from <27A6E9BA.2E94@tct.uucp> by chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg):
: +---------------
: | According to jmaynard@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Jay Maynard):
: | >I can't afford the legal representation I'd need to defend my rights in my
: | >programming.
: | 
: | And who would ever sue a person making a good faith effort to abide by
: | the GPV?
: +---------------
: 
: A willing dupe with a greedy lawyer.  There've been some cases of ridiculous
: suits making it into court because some larcenous lawsmith started seeing
: green... and the company I work for can't afford some yip suing us because a
: system we sell happens to include some Perl scripts and the yip thinks he can
: sue us into giving him the whole system for free courtesy of the GPV.

Perl scripts are very explicitly disclaimed in the README file for Perl,
so this would be a frivolous lawsuit.  You could very likely countersue
for punitive damages.

To quote: "no Perl script falls under the terms of the License unless you
explicitly put said script under the terms of the License yourself."

: If any of our customers even *threatens* this there'll be h*ll to pay....

Feel free to call on me as an expert witless, er, witness.  I would certainly
back your side.

Larry Wall
lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov