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ConsiderationConsiderationPosted Mar 28, 2013 3:40 UTC (Thu) by SEMW (guest, #52697)Parent article: When does the FSF own your code?
> For good and valuable consideration, receipt of which I acknowledge
Given that the FSF presumably doesn't give consideration for code contributions in general , how could that provision do anything?
IANAL (yet), but at first glance, I don't see how asserting that there's consideration, if there actually isn't, could be effective. Trying to contract out of the consideration requirement is circular - without the consideration there isn't a valid contract in the first place. (For that you need a deed). And asserting in the contract that there was consideration had and received surely isn't itself evidence of that, a court'll ask what the consideration actually was.
(Or do they? Do the FSF mail cheques for $1 or something for signing their CLA?)
The only way I can see that sentence working is some kind of estoppel by representation (the contributor represents he's been given consideration and the FSF relies on that to their detriment, so the contributor is estopped from denying that he got consideration). But that seems like a dubious argument given that the representee here knows the rep is false.
Actual lawyers (or anyone more familiar with the effect of that wording): what am I missing here?
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Consideration Posted Mar 28, 2013 14:35 UTC (Thu) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link]
> (Or do they? Do the FSF mail cheques for $1 or something for signing their CLA?)
They actually mail you a USD $1 bill, last I checked.
Consideration Posted Mar 28, 2013 20:21 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
They certainly don't do that for everyone. Maybe only people within the US?
Consideration Posted Mar 29, 2013 11:02 UTC (Fri) by SEMW (guest, #52697) [Link]
Not all legal systems need consideration for a contract. It's possible it's only common law countries (US, England, Canada, India etc.) that need it, I'm not sure (I'm not familiar with any civil law systems). If so would that be consistent with your experience?
Consideration Posted Mar 29, 2013 15:40 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Well, I'm in the UK, and got the 'consideration' note in my assignments, but nothing actually accompanied it. I thought that was fishy at the time, but what the hell I have a patch to submit. :)
Consideration Posted Mar 30, 2013 17:15 UTC (Sat) by rleigh (subscriber, #14622) [Link]
I got a GNU sticker with the reply for each of my assignments, which I assumed was the "consideration".
Consideration Posted Mar 31, 2013 19:15 UTC (Sun) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Oh. I might have got a sticker or something, but if so it was so 'valuable' that I entirely forgot about it :)
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