License Approval Process

[Brice, Richard]

I agree with most of the points made on this discussion. The more licenses
that exist, the more splintered the open source community will become. You
can't use source code licensed with License X with source code licensed with
License Z (ok, that's a generalization but I don't think it is too far off
the mark).

I too have submitted a license for approval with no luck. The Alternate
Route Open Source License, drafted by the Washington State Attorney
General's Office, is simply a modification of the GPL. We based this license
on the GPL with the permission of the Free Software Foundation. We support
all of the concepts of in the GPL, however the disclaimers and "lack of
warranty" statements aren't specific enough (at least that is what the
lawyer told me). This is why we drafted our own license.

I can appreciate why OSI hasn't certified our license. Does the world really
need another GPL derivative? However, I fail to see why the OSI does not
take the time to tell me that the Alternate Route Open Source License will
not be certified. I have taken considerable time and effort to embrace open
source concepts and to make open source software a reality in government. As
a minimum, I expect a notice of rejection that details why a license that
satisfied all the requirements of the OSD is not worthy of OSI
certification.

Richard Brice,
Software Applications Engineer
WSDOT Bridge and Structures Office