Free licenses and warranties

Free licenses and warranties

Another point: while the GPL itself contains a "no warranty" provision, contributors to FSF software such as GCC sign a contract with the FSF that does contain a warranty, specifically that the contributor is the sole copyright owner of the contributed work. The FSF also obtains disclaimers of rights from the employers of contributors. Here's an example of the language:

Developer is not obliged to defend FSF against any spurious claim of adverse ownership, but will cooperate with FSF in defending against any such claim and will indemnify FSF for all losses if the claim is not spurious, i.e. if the adverse claimant is a true owner and FSF is thereby damaged, including but not limited to the amount of all adverse damage judgments and costs of litigation.

It is possible that Linus Torvalds may come to regret his decision not to follow the FSF's example here, and instead attack it, since by giving up protection of this type he might be found personally liable for someone else's copyright violation.