namespace protection compatible with the OSD?

Brian Behlendorf brian at collab.net
Tue Apr 17 23:38:58 UTC 2001


Let's say I created a specification for an interface in Perl; call it
Foo::Bar.  Let's further say I published the specification, and a
collection of code that implemented it, under a BSD-style license, with
the sole added clause that any derivative work that changed the
implementation in a way incompatible with the specification for that
interface, needed to call its interface something else; it couldn't be
Foo::Bar, but it could be Foo::Baz, or whatever.

Why do this?  Because I wanted to make sure someone didn't take my code,
slightly modify it in an incompatible way, and try to confuse the public
about what the API Foo::Bar was supposed to do, whether intentional or
unintentional.

I suspect this would pass the OSD tests, but I wanted some validation of
that.  I see it as a cross between the trademark-related covenants of the
Apache license and the interface-changing clauses of the SISSL.

Comments?

	Brian




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