On Thu, 10 Jan 2002, T.J. Duchene wrote: > Hello, > > As a result of Borland's Kylix and JBuilder licenses for Linux, I humbly ask > you to consider posting this letter or similar information. I hope to get > Borland to change their outrageous policy. Hi. Thanks for bringing this nasty license to peoples' attention. I *do* agree with you that it's not very nice. However, while not a lawyer, I have had some contact with them recently, and you might want to as well before trying to make a couple of your points, which I believe are not correct from a legal standpoint. > 12. AUDIT. During the term of this License and for one > (1) year thereafter, upon reasonable notice and during > normal business hours, Borland or its outside auditors will > have the right to enter your premises and access your > records and computer systems to verify that you have paid > to Borland the correct amounts owed under this License > and determine whether the Products are being used in > accordance with the terms of this License. You will > provide reasonable assistance to Borland in connection > with this provision. You agree to pay the cost of the audit > if any underpayments during the period covered by the > audit amount to more than five percent (5%) of the fees > actually owed for that period. > > > We are to grant you access to our work and materials, for the purposes of > verifying compliance with this license. In other words, we forfeit our > rights of privacy at our facilities or our homes - a right which we are > guaranteed under the Constitution, I believe, that as valuable as privacy is, that you will find that there is no such explicit right granted by the Constitution, and that this is in fact a fairly common misapprehension. Further, even if it did, the rights granted by the Constitution are a restraint on *government*, not third parties. > 14.4 No Jury Trials; No Joinder. Each party hereby > irrevocably waives its right to a jury trial in any legal > action, suit or proceeding between the parties arising out > of or relating to this License. A copy this License may be > filed with the court as written consent by both parties to a > bench trial. You agree that any dispute you may have > against Borland cannot be joined with any dispute of any > other person or entity in a lawsuit, arbitration or any other > proceeding, or resolved on a classwide basis. <snip> > First, we must forfeit our rights to privacy, and then we must give up our > traditional protections and rights to resolve grievances under the law. No, they do not ask you to give _up_ your rights to resolve things under the law -- they do *restrict* them, but a bench trial is a trial in a court of law. Being tried by a "jury of peers" is the right of criminals -- this is not a criminal law setting. > I believe you are asking too much from programmers and other users, > who have looked to your company for years to provide quality > development software on many platforms. I agree completely with your sentiments, but would recommend you either take the legal slant out of your letter, or have a lawyer look it over. It will not be read as a credible letter by anyone at Borland (who hired their own lawyers to draft the license in the first place!) if you don't have all your legal points in order. Constructively, Phil Mendelsohn -- "Trying to do something with your life is like sitting down to eat a moose." --Douglas Wood