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0 points0123456789ABCDE20d ago0 comments

full-disclosure: i skimmed the wiki on reliance damages, and concluded you're wrong. it goes something like this: reliance damages require you produce a contract, or some other evidence, that demonstrates you were promised some thing you did not receive, or some outcome you didn't experience. essentially, your claim is: a README file has more standing, in a court of law, than the LICENSE file sitting next to it at the root. cute, but preposterous.

anyway, to the gist of this reply: you disagree with the license conditions. an important, but rather obvious, observation to be had is that, the rights the LICENSE offers, are contingent on your acceptance of the LICENSE conditions. one cannot be had without the other.

the LICENSE is real, it's a contract, and is in effect the moment you obtain a copy.

> You can’t [un-]license your way out [of the] liability if you [copied], formally or informally, [wares] that [you have no rights to, because you disagreed with its license conditions].

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3 comments · 1 top-level

wang_li19d ago· 2 in thread

A license is not a contract. It's a grant of permissions from an owner to a recipient that details what they can and cannot do. A license can be part of a transaction, but it does not constitute a contract. Especially in the case of free software where there is no exchange of considerations.

Regardless, contracts are not required for reliance interest to apply.

0123456789ABCDEOP19d ago

> A license is not a contract.

you're right, in case law exchange of considerations matters, and licenses are treated as rights grants. however, civil law does not care about considerations, and use of the object implies consent.

but that is irrelevant to our thread, because whether you breach the terms of the contract, or violate the terms of the rights grant, the different legal systems seem to have arrived at the same conclusion: it is copyright infringement

> Regardless, contracts are not required for reliance interest to apply.

was hoping that including "some other evidence" would be enough to avoid that comment

nl19d ago

This just isn't true.

Reliance requires an exchange of value. If you get something for zero value without a contract it's a gift under US commercial law.

You need to provide citations if you keep insisting otherwise because every open source licence relies on this

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