[antlr-interest] submission of patches, fixes, other contributions

[Gerald B. Rosenberg]

At 07:56 PM 5/30/2005, you wrote:

>I understand your contention but I must disagree.  It seems quite
>hypocritical to require a level of warranty from contributors that is not
>the same as what is given to the users.

Just to be clear, it is not a question of sharing risk with the users.  It 
is properly a question of the personal responsibility and integrity of the 
*contributors* to protect the entire community -- themselves, the project 
and the users -- from the introduction of unnecessary risk.  The AFL merely 
stops the progression of risk assessment at the level of the project lead 
from reaching the users; the EPL instead tries to diffuse risk entirely to 
the users.  Neither really deals with reducing risk to begin with, i.e., 
addressing the contributors, which is what I understand to be Terence's issue.

Now to your point.  What I suggest is not hypocritical, but you are correct 
that the protections are asymmetric.  The free software market place is not 
zero sum gain, but zero sum.  Wish the economic model was different, but 
without monetization, there is no rational way to transfer risk in any 
direction.  In such situations, the only way to remain viable is to 
minimize as much as possible risk from the outset.

It is important to realize that, after almost 30 years, there have been 
very few actual or even attempted adjudications of these clauses.  Even so, 
the sensitivity of the community to the issue remains very high.  It is an 
emotional and often very personal issue.  I do not believe that any 
balancing of the interests in any direction will reduce that.  But, given 
the sensitivity, I believe it best for all concerned to be sensitive from 
the outset, and to work to that end as it tends to protect all.

As a practical matter, regardless of any technically legal asymmetry in the 
license wording (and to a certainty if the risk is equally shared), the 
contributor, the project and the community will all likely loose everything 
in defense of even a minimally credible legal challenge.

Best,
Gerald

----
Gerald B. Rosenberg, Esq.
NewTechLaw
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