Licence question about Indemnification

[Georg Wrede]

Christopher Wright wrote:
> Chris wrote:
>> Greetings to all !
>>
>> I am evaluating D language for my next project (and immediatly loved
>> it),  but went to a screetching halt on the following licence term:
>>
>> "You agree to defend, indemnify and hold Digital Mars and Symantec, its
>> subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agents
>> harmless from all claims or demands made against them (and any related
>> losses, damages, expenses and costs) arising out of your use of the
>> Software."
>>
>> I feel the statement "arising out of your use" is too broad in scope, and
>> ecompassing even the _legitimate_ use of the compiler.
>>
>> For example let's say that I wrote an antivirus in D, and come to be a 
>> good
>> product; if Symantec lose some market share of their similar product, 
>> since
>> the product was made "out of my use of the Software", do I have to
>> "indemnify" them?
> 
> In this context, "indemnify" means "agree never to hold responsible". 
> This means that you and your customers can't sue Symantec or Digital 
> Mars if your antivirus software kills their firstborn children due to a 
> bug in DMD.


> If you use DMD to create an antivirus application that totally destroys 
> Symantec and they go bankrupt, you owe them nothing.

Errr, /they/ owe you nothing. But they can sue you.

(Not that suing over losing market share to a competitor were grounds 
for suing, but that's not the issue. This indemnification is here so 
nobody can sue /them/, but it doesn't affect their suing others or you.)


More interesting would be if Symantec licensed your D software and it 
caused them to go bankrupt. They probably would sue you, but "not 
related to the use of D, etc.", instead they'd sue for "your choices of 
algorithm" or "your sloppy software practices", or something else.