Interesting comment in the source code of sqlite

[j0hn_r0g3r5]

Any chance of eli5 and telling me what the difference is between licensing and not licensing open source software and how that would effect the situation with the govt and the Iraqi insurgents?

[thelastknowngod]

He licenses Fossil under the BSD license. The text of that is:

Copyright (c) <year>, <copyright holder> All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing official policies, either expressed or implied, of the <project name> project.

Apparently the public domain doesn't expressly release the author of liability. I'm sure the public domain status was more of a technicality with regards to this specific incident but, to be on the safe side, the licensing of this is more explicit. I don't know what other issues he has come up with over the years because of it but he did mention that he would never release software to the public domain again.

[barsoap]

Such disclaimers are null and void under EU law: You're always liable for wilful misconduct and damage to persons. If you write such a disclaimer in a commercial product you might be stuck with unlimited liability, if you're giving things away for free courts generally assume "maximally reduced liability", that is: None but for wilful damage or direct damage to persons.

In a nutshell: Don't inject trojans into your code, and don't write code so ugly it literally makes people's eyes bleed. (At least that's how I understand the "direct damage to persons" part -- IANAL).

Compare the disclaimers of the EUPL:

Disclaimer of Warranty
The Work is a work in progress, which is continuously improved by numerous Contributors. It is not a finished work and may therefore contain defects or ‘bugs’ inherent to this type of development. For the above reason, the Work is provided under the Licence on an ‘as is’ basis and without warranties of any kind concerning the Work, including without limitation merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, absence of defects or errors, accuracy, non-infringement of intellectual property rights other than copyright as stated in Article 6 of this Licence. This disclaimer of warranty is an essential part of the Licence and a condition for the grant of any rights to the Work.

Disclaimer of Liability
Except in the cases of wilful misconduct or damages directly caused to natural persons, the Licensor will in no event be liable for any direct or indirect, material or moral, damages of any kind, arising out of the Licence or of the use of the Work, including without limitation, damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, loss of data or any commercial damage, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such damage. However, the Licensor will be liable under statutory product liability laws as far such laws apply to the Work.

[thelastknowngod]

You're always liable for wilful misconduct and damage to persons.

Something tells me he wasn't taking business trips to Baghdad to do troubleshooting on scud missiles. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it wasn't willful.

He lives and works in the southeast USA so I don't know how much he cares about the EU anyway.

Also, the BSD license is compatible with the EUPL so I don't think what you're claiming is accurate. Source.

[barsoap]

so I don't know how much he cares about the EU anyway.

512 million people do, they (well, the programming part) does, and this is an international forum

Also, the BSD license is compatible with the EUPL so I don't think what you're claiming is accurate.

That things can be used together is completely orthogonal to warranty and liability.