Re: Copyright question

[Axel Kittenberger <axkibe@...>]

Usually it does. If I donate anything (and free software is nothing
else than a free gift) the donee hardly receives any addtional legal
right to claim non satisfaction of a free product. Donors are usually
protected in that way. I googled to find the latin phrase of it, but
didn't find it, it went like "the one who gives free of heart shall
not receive further damage" or something like that. Or "Don't look a
gift horse in the mouth". The upper case paragraph is just to make
sure nobody gets to stupid ideas, and just in case, as cautious text
drafter you build multiple lines of legal defense using it. Especially
in the early days of free software the upper case as an attacking
party otherwise might have tried to invalidate the clause by claiming
it to be "unusal".

The exception of course is criminal intent, in that way putting
anything criminal on purpose into your "free software" (keyloggers,
deliberate destructions etc.) can be compared of "releasing a bullet
into public domain".

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 10:33 PM, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> wrote:
> Patrick Donnelly <batrick@batbytes.com> writes:
>
>> I wonder if releasing something into the public domain also
>> automatically releases you from any liability associated with its use,
>> at least in the U.S.A. (prompting the big uppercase paragraph in the
>> BSD license as well as many others).
>
> Of course not.  If I release a bullet into the public domain, this does
> not automatically release me from any liability associated with its
> impact, either.  Not even if I did not do so with malice but merely
> carelessness.
>
> --
> David Kastrup
>
>
>