Managing commercial risks in open source software licensing

Legal context: The article reviews the commercial risk allocation clauses intypical open source licence terms and discusses their enforceabilityand implications. Key points: The enforceability of warranty disclaimers and limitation ofliability clauses in common open source licence terms is questionable,particularly in a cross-border context, and commercial licensorsshould take additional steps to protect themselves from down-streamrisks. Practical significance: Open source software presents a number of unusual commercialissues, because it is available free of charge and the providerstry to disclaim warranties and liabilities. End users and resellershave to adjust their own in- and out-licensing models to accommodatethis situation.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Measuring Barriers to Help-Seeking Behavior in Adolescents

To construct and validate an instrument that would measure barriers to help-seeking behavior in adolescents. Method: A 37-item questionnaire based on prior help-seeking literature was constructed to yield a total score indicating strength of barriers to help-seeking behavior. The instrument was given to a sample of 280 high school students following a pilot study of 65 students. Results: The instrument was found to have good test–retest and internal reliability and adequate validity in the tested population. It shows promise in helping to identify adolescents who may be amenable to, and opposed to, therapeutic intervention, and may aid in understanding which barriers to help seeking are most significant in any given population.     

Öknomik der deutschen Wiedervereinigung: Erfolge, Probleme, Chancen

Ohne Zusammenfassung Rezension zu: Thomas Lange und Geoff Pugh: The Economics of German Unification. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar 1998, xxiii, 209 S., ￡ 49,95.     

Die (neue) Haftung für Schäden an der Biodiversität

Zusammenfassung  Mit dem Umweltschadensgesetz wird im deutschen Umweltrecht eine neuartige Haftung für Sch?den an der Biodiversit?t eingeführt. Die n?here juristische und naturwissenschaftliche Bestimmung dieser Umweltsch?den sieht sich jedoch mit mehreren Problemfeldern konfrontiert. Ausgehend von der gesetzlichen Schadensdefinition als erhebliche nachteilige Auswirkungen auf den günstigen Erhaltungszustand bestimmter Lebensr?ume oder Arten behandelt der Beitrag die Frage, wann solche Auswirkungen erheblich nachteilig sein k?nnen. Um den Begriff der “Erheblichkeit” einzugrenzen, wird die Rechtsprechung und Literatur zu ?hnlich unbestimmten Rechtsbegriffen aus anderen Bereichen des Umweltrechts auf ihre Verwertbarkeit und Anwendbarkeit überprüft. Im Ergebnis kann allein auf die im Rahmen der FFH-Vertr?glichkeitsprüfung anerkannten Kriterien zurückgegriffen werden.     

Gender,Ethnicity, and Education as Privileges: Exploring the Generalizability of the Existential Guilt Reaction

Two cross-sectional questionnaire studies were conducted to replicate and extend previous research on the existential guilt reaction. In Study I, gender was considered as a privilege. Male student participants (N = 141) were confronted with the low proportion of women in high-ranking positions and asked to appraise this situation. Self-reported behavior, behavioral intentions, and appeal to authorities aimed at advancing equal opportunities for both genders served as criterion variables. Path analyses were performed to explore the correlation structure among the variables. Self-reported behavior depended most strongly on behavioral intentions and on belief in control. Behavioral intentions depended most strongly on existential guilt. This effect accords to previous existential guilt research. Ethnicity and education were considered as privileges in Study II. Privileged Paraguayan students (N = 80) were confronted with the disadvantageous living conditions of Indians and Campesinos. They were asked to appraise the situation. Behavioral intentions and appeal to authorities directed at improving the living conditions of Indians and Campesinos served as criteria. As in Study I, existential guilt was the strongest predictor of behavioral intentions. Study II revealed the role of values in the process of existential guilt and prosocial behavior. This is a new research finding. Indirect effects of the two values of universalism and benevolence on behavioral intentions were obtained. The effect of universalism was mediated by existential guilt and moral outrage, the effect of benevolence was mediated by injustice and existential guilt. Tradition had a negative indirect effect on behavioral intentions. This effect was mediated by justification of deprivation and probably means that adherence to tradition eases the justification of traditionally existing social inequalities in a society.     

The great landowners’ curia and the reichsrat elections during the formative years of Austrian constitutionalism 1867–1873

W.P. Blockmans (ed.): Le privilège général et les privilèges régionaux de Marie de Bourgogne pour les Pays‐Bas: 1477 (Kortrijk‐Heule. UGA, 1985; Anciens Pays et Assemblées d'États LXXX. pp. 549; ISBN 90–6768–117–2; 2060BF.)

Maija Jansson (ed.): Proceedings in Parliament 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia, PA 19106: Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, lxxii; 1988; pp. lii, 560; ISBN 087169 172 8; $70.)

Robert Williams: Political Corruption in Africa (Gower Publishing Co. Ltd., London, 1987; pp. vi, 146; ISBN 0 566 00794 0; £18.50.)