Re: [widgets] Interface: license attribute, was Re: [Widget: Warp] - license attribute

On Nov 6, 2009, at 11:19 AM, ext Marcos Caceres wrote:

> Hi Benoit,
> 2009/11/3 SUZANNE Benoit RD-SIRP-ISS <benoit.suzanne@orange- 
> ftgroup.com>
> All,
> Reviewing the spec there is no access to the License  attribute.  
> Shouldn’t it be added in the liste of the accessible attributes?
>
> Thank you for raising this important issue.
>
> The reason we will not be including license as an attribute is that  
> there are a number of legal issues and potential security  
> vulnerabilities associated with making the license available as an  
> interface.  Some of the technical challenges are:
>
> 1. the license element can be a URI (which returns any content type  
> - which could be a script).
> 2. the license element can be a file (which can be any content type).
> 3. the license element can be a text content of the license element.
> 4. The license element can be a mix of 1 OR 2 AND 3.
>
> I am not a lawyer, and the following are my personal opinions and  
> should not be construed as having any legal weight whatsoever.  WRT  
> 1, as user, I  am legally concerned with the implications of having  
> a license that can change online without my consent. I'm not sure  
> how the law deals with that, so we leave it up to UAs. Also, what  
> happens if the license is unavailable upon request?
>
> Because of 4, there is a possibility that the online license and  
> the license in the text content could contradict each other or  
> invalidate each other.
>
> The above issues are only the tip of the iceberg. Implementers  
> should take caution implementing this feature and should probably  
> seek legal advice as to how best to proceed to protect consumers,  
> developers, and themselves.

Additionally, requests for new features for v1 ended when we agreed  
to publish the 18-Aug-2009 LCWD.

-Regards, Art Barstow