License Approval Process

[David Johnson]

On Mon, 14 Feb 2000, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
> I see a lot of people asking on this list why their licenses are not
> being approved.

I have to agree with most if not all of your points. There are getting to be
too many licenses. And most of the ones being submitted are merely minor
modifications of existing licenses.

If you don't have a pressing need for a new license, don't create one! If
you're a corporation and your lawyer says that the MPL, Jikes, etc., aren't
suitable, make him explain why he's smarter than the Netscape or IBM lawyers.
If you find that none of the existing licenses work for your project, be
prepared to explain to others why your new license is any better than the
existing. And please understand what Open Source software really is. There's
been more than one time here where someone has submitted a license that fails
the OSS definition on numerous points.

That said,  I will grant that there are a few large holes in the Free Software
licensing spectrum. If your license manages to plug one of these holes, it will
be welcomed. But if it is just another rewrite of the GPL or yet another
one-product license, don't bother submitting it.

 -- 
Arandir...
_____________________________
http://www.meer.net/~arandir/