The deal stipulated that Spyglass would receive a base quarterly fee for the Mosaic license plus a royalty from Microsoft's Internet Explorer revenue.[6]
If IE revenue is $0, then royalties are $0, too.
Not nice, but perfectly legal.
> Without real consequences, what is the incentive to participate if the rules can change when they don’t always go in your favor?
That's the root problem here. The law works because people believe that it works. Once people lose that belief, the typical response is violent suppression, or violent revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyglass,_Inc.
The deal stipulated that Spyglass would receive a base quarterly fee for the Mosaic license plus a royalty from Microsoft's Internet Explorer revenue.[6]
If IE revenue is $0, then royalties are $0, too.
Not nice, but perfectly legal.
> Without real consequences, what is the incentive to participate if the rules can change when they don’t always go in your favor?
That's the root problem here. The law works because people believe that it works. Once people lose that belief, the typical response is violent suppression, or violent revolution.