Subject: Re: [bug#55998] [PATCH] gnu: Add cctools.

From: Philip McGrath <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2022 15:06:18 -0400

On 6/15/22 14:45, Maxime Devos wrote:
> Philip McGrath schreef op wo 15-06-2022 om 13:15 [-0400]:
>> +      (license license:apsl2))))
> 
> Seems to have a problematic cause:
> 
> ‘13.6 Dispute Resolution. Any litigation or other dispute resolution
> between You and Apple relating to this License shall take place in the
> Northern District of California, and You and Apple hereby consent to
> the personal jurisdiction of, and venue in, the state and federal
> courts within that District with respect to this License. The
> application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the
> International Sale of Goods is expressly excluded.’
> 
> To me it seems a bit much to require of users _outside_ the US to have
> to subject theirselves to the US whenever Apple feels like litigating.
> 
> (Is such an unilateral requirement even legal?)
> 

I agree that the choice-of-law language is less than friendly to users.

The FSF has issued an opinion [1] that the APSL 2.0 is a free software 
license: they say that "Apple's lawyers worked with the FSF to produce a 
license that would qualify" (after problems with earlier versions of the 
license). They "recommend you do not release new software using this 
license; but it is ok to use and improve software which other people 
release under this license."

IIUC, (guix licenses) only defines FSDG-compatible licenses.

Certainly there are broader community governance questions implicated, 
but I don't think this patch needs to resolve them.

-Philip

[1]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/apsl.html