Simple Public License, second draft

[bruce at perens.com]

Forgive me for being busy and tired. If there's anything I haven't covered
here, please ask.

From: Justin Wells <jread at semiotek.com>
> I sure I'm not done yet: comments, problems, suggestions?

It still looks to me as if it won't pass the OSD. Of course you have an
Open Source license in the GPL, you may simply resolve to have one
Open Source license and one non-Open-Source license.

Regarding the status of tear-open licenses and their use of contract
law, I am in touch with corporate IP attorneys due to their work on
Open Source licenses. They are sanguine that such licenses _can_ be
enforced, including their use of contract law in addition to straight
copyright law. This dispite a case cited to me by John Cowan. However,
there have been no actual test cases of our licenses to date - I suspect
that parts of UCITA will have passed before any test cases happen and
this will improve enforcability of tear-open licenses.

>                         Simple Public License 
> 
>                         (c) 1999 Justin Wells
>                          All Rights Reserved 
> 
>                   *** DRAFT: NOT A LEGAL DOCUMENT ***
> 
> This license permits you to use our software for free, to create
> proprietary applications based on it, and to share modifications with
> other users. It discourages code forking and requires you to credit
> us, but you can opt out of those restrictions by releasing under the
> GNU GPL. Since it's free, there is no warranty and we accept no
> liability. This paragraph is not legally binding, the actual terms
> follow.
> 
> 
> WHAT AND WHO:
> 
>   "Our software" refers to the software covered by this license:
>   WebMacro (www.webmacro.org), a software package consisting of a
>   template language, servlet development library, example code, an
>   API, design, documentation, and other materials. The purpose of 
>   our software is to provide a development library or tool for 
>   building Java servlets.
> 
>   "We", "us", and "our" refer to the owners of our software: Semiotek
>   Inc., and it's agents.
> 
>   "You" and "your" refer to prospective users and licensees who want
>   to acquire a right to use our software under this agreement.
> 
> 
> OWNERSHIP, TERMINATION, AND APPLICABILITY:
> 
>   You agree with us as follows:
> 
>   Our software is our property, and it is copyrighted and licensed,
>   not sold. You have no rights to our software, except for those
>   provided by this license. 
> 
>   If you breach the terms of this license, such as by failing to
>   fulfill your obligations under it, and you fail to cure the breach
>   within thirty (30) days of becoming aware of it, then your rights
>   to use our software are terminated, and you must cease using it.

You should cease _distributing_ if your license is terminated, too.

> 
>   You are not required to accept this license, since you have not
>   signed it. However, nothing else permits you to use our software.

Use or _distribute_.

> 
> 
> DEFINITION OF BASIC RIGHTS:
> 
>   The "basic rights" to software are defined as follows:
> 
>     The right to use, copy, reproduce, distribute, display,
>     perform, and sublicense the software, and to charge a fee
>     for any of these purposes.
> 
>     The right to create a "binary application" based on the software,
>     by compiling and/or linking the software with your own separate
>     source material to produce a binary executable or library; and
>     to have these "basic rights" to that binary application.
> 
>     The right to create a "modified version" of the software, by
>     adding, deleting, editing, changing, fixing, or otherwise altering
>     the source files, APIs, documentation, and other materials that
>     constitute the software; and to have these "basic rights" to that
>     modified version.
> 
>   These basic rights are world-wide and non-exclusive. They include
>   a limited grant under any patent right, trademark, or copyright
>   that may apply to the software, minimally sufficient to allow
>   full enjoyment of the other basic rights.
>   

And you want these patent rights in turn from people who distribute
modifications and own applicable patents, don't you?

> 
> YOUR RIGHTS:
> 
>   We grant you the above "basic rights" to our software, limited
>   by, and conditional upon your fulfillment of, your obligations
>   under this license.
> 
> 
> YOUR OBLIGATIONS:
> 
>   Your obligations under this license include the following:
> 
>   You grant to us the above basic rights to any modifications,
>   fixes, extensions, improvements, or other alterations to our 
>   software which you submit or suggest to us.

Insert language about grant of patent rights above.

> 
>   If you distribute a "binary application" based on our software you
>   agree to credit our software in your documentation, and to mention
>   where it can be obtained for free (such as a URL).
> 
>   If you distribute a "modified version" of our software you agree
>   that:
> 
>     a) Your modified version of our software will not be less free, 
>        meaning that it will be covered by this license; have no fee 
>        associated with it, other than a reasonable fee to cover the 
>        distribution costs; and that it will not be made dependent
>        upon additional software unless that software is freely
>        available to the public under a license which grants everyone
>        the above basic rights.
> 
>     b) You will provide us with timely access to your modifications, 
>        in a convenient electronic form. For example, you could
>        e-mail them to us, or provide us with the URL of a website
>        from which we can download them.
> 
>     c) Anyone who receives the modified version will also be bound
>        by these terms, and you will cause them to know it. 
> 
>   Finally, you agree not to include any part of our software, or any
>   part of a binary application based on our software, in a competing
>   product, unless that competing product as a whole is considered
>   to be a modified version of our software. A "competing product" is
>   understood to mean software which has, at least in part, the same 
>   purpose as we stated for our software in its definition.
   
1. You are writing your own loopholes. Why include the restriction at all
   if it is now so easy to circumvent?

2. I still don't see how this restriction could be considered to be compliant
   with the OSD. I just don't think you can restrict the type of product in
   an OSD-compliant license.

>   These obligations do not apply to copies of software that you place
>   under the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by
>   the Free Software Foundation ("GNU GPL"). Thus you can use our
>   software to create software that is covered by the GNU GPL.
> 
> 
> NO WARRANTY AND NO LIABILITY:
> 
>   Use our software at your own risk: it may contain bugs, may fail
>   to function correctly, and has been provided without support or
>   maintenance of any kind.
> 
>   There is NO WARRANTY for our software: it is licensed to you on an
>   "AS IS" basis, without even the implied warranties of fitness to
>   purpose or merchantability. You are solely responsible for determining
>   the appropriateness of its use.
> 
>   Under no circumstance will we be held liable for damages arising
>   from the use, misuse, or inability to use our software, no matter
>   whether they are direct, indirect, special, incidental, or economic
>   consequential damages, or for damages resulting from a third
>   party claim, even if we have been advised of the possibility of
>   such damages.
> 
>                   *** DRAFT: NOT A LEGAL DOCUMENT ***
> 

I'm still not convinced that it's an improvement on the LGPL.

	Thanks

	Bruce