[Whonix-devel] [License-review] For Approval: GPL-3+-with-whonix-additional-terms - GPLv3 with improved, legal protections as per GNU GPL version 3 section 7

Sat Mar 16 17:35:00 CET 2019

Brendan Hickey:
> [...] Have you run this
> by the FSF? I can't speak to their appetite for revising the GPL, but
> improvements to indemnification language might be of interest to them.

I've sent a request about a similar inquiry but haven't heard back yet.
A copy of the message I sent can be found here. [1]

Indemnification is clearly a thing.

Other Open Source licenses mention indemnification.

Quote opensource.org Terms of Service [2]:

> INDEMNITY
> You agree to indemnify and hold OSI and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, employees, partners and licensors harmless from any claim or demand, including but not limited to reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content you submit, post, transmit or otherwise make available through the Service, your use of the OSI Service, your connection to the Service, your violation of the TOS, or your violation of any rights of another.

Quote GPLv3:

>   Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you
> add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright holders of
> that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms:
> 
> [...]
> 
>     f) Requiring indemnification of licensors and authors of that
>     material by anyone who conveys the material (or modified versions of
>     it) with contractual assumptions of liability to the recipient, for
>     any liability that these contractual assumptions directly impose on
> those licensors and authors.

I wounder why GPLv3 allows to supplement terms related to
indemnification, but didn't add such an indemnification clause by default?

I'll ask FSF and cc license-discuss.

Kind regards,
Patrick

[1] https://www.whonix.org/pipermail/whonix-devel/2019-March/001340.html
[2] https://opensource.org/ToS