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List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: Legalese
From:       Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre () nbi ! dk>
Date:       2002-01-28 12:34:09
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Eric Bischoff wrote:

> Le Lundi 28 Janvier 2002 11:20, Jacob Sparre Andersen a écrit :

> > Why are the legal texts made translatable, if they shouldn't
> > be translated?
> 
> I did not say they should not. I said they could be left
> untranslated. The choice is left to each translation
> team.

Point taken.

> Personally, I like to offer a translation of the
> legalese to the end-user, being said that the English
> version is the "official" one in case of problems,
> because this end-user might not understand the English
> language (the fact that no one really understands
> legalese English and its translations is another issue).

:-)

> Another reason for choosing to offer a translation is
> that we have a legal problem in some countries if we do
> not. The French law says every contract you sign should
> be written in French. This includes licence agreements
> which are a kind of contract.

Agreed. But since the users without a licence agreement are
stuck with the rights provided by "copyright", the problem
is "only" that software distributed under (for example) the
GNU GPL is not Open Source in France (and other countries
with similar rules).

> But the GPL (for example) says that its translations are
> illegal. If you apply the legal rules strictly, this
> means that the GPL is illegal in France :-((.

Technically I suppose that it is only invalid.

> We use this French translation as a workaround for this
> problem. I admit it could legally be attacked, but it's
> better as nothing.

Since authors publishing under GPL most likely support the
ideas in GPL, I find it hard to see how problems can arise
in practice.

Jacob
-- 
Growing older is compulsory. Growing up isn't.

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