Villa: MPL Beta 2- as FAQ [LWN.net]

On his blog, Luis Villa discusses the latest beta version of the update to the Mozilla Public License (MPL). In particular, there is an experimental rewrite of the license in FAQ form: "This approach has two advantages. First, it helps you draft and organize things more clearly. Since every paragraph was the answer to a question, things were broken up into what normal human beings would consider more logical units, instead of the giant blocks of text legal documents sometimes sprawl into. Preparing the FAQified version of Beta 2 made us aware of some MPL sections that had this problem, and it helped us reorder and reorganize text as a result- something which you can see in (for example) the new Section 8 of MPL 2 Beta 2, which is part of the old Section 9 broken out so that it makes more sense independently. Because of this, these changes will help every reader of the license, even if we never publish another "FAQified" version."

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Villa: MPL Beta 2- as FAQ

Posted Apr 2, 2011 5:22 UTC (Sat) by Hausvib6 (guest, #70606) [Link]

FAQ style is nice, it is so much easier understand than standard usual legal lingo. Is it possible that by writing the license if the FAQ style can somehow be used to restrict the license or even perhaps subvert what the licenser intended by using that license?

Villa: MPL Beta 2- as FAQ

Posted Apr 2, 2011 11:49 UTC (Sat) by Trelane (subscriber, #56877) [Link]

Is a good question; I've wondered that in regard to the GPL FAQ myself. It does help clarify the intent enormously.