HOWTO: Pick an open source license (part 1) (ZDNet) [LWN.net]

HOWTO: Pick an open source license (part 1) (ZDNet)

Posted Jun 16, 2006 3:57 UTC (Fri) by nlucas (subscriber, #33793)
In reply to: HOWTO: Pick an open source license (part 1) (ZDNet) by man_ls
Parent article: HOWTO: Pick an open source license (part 1) (ZDNet)

At least in my country (Portugal), there is a thing called "the spirit of the law" that can be used to cover cases not explicitly in the paper.
It's up to the courts to judge if it applies or not, off course.

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HOWTO: Pick an open source license (part 1) (ZDNet)

Posted Jun 17, 2006 11:18 UTC (Sat) by lysse (guest, #3190) [Link]

That applies in the UK too; the judiciary have the power to take a reasonably broad approach to the interpretation of legislation, and may depart from strict literalism if they feel it necessary to do so, which can have the effect of creating a "penalty without [explicit] law".

Moreover, the UK has evolved more or less continuously from a dictatorial monarchy; we're still all subjects of the Crown, and hence our rights are (even post-HRA) only those which have been granted to us by the Crown (ie by her government). One might argue about the extent of the UK's democracy, but it would appear that man_ls's contention (that all modern democratic societies are inherently permissive) is sadly not as true as any of us would wish it to be.