Cherry-picking license proposals

[Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M.]

Dave,

A note of clarification.

Although I need not speak for OSI, I am confident that they  would say that
they are NOT acting as legal counsel for the drafters of the submitted
licenses.  Instead, the idea of getting a license approved or of discussing
the licenses on this list is more about the goals of open source and whether
the proposed license terms in the submitted licenses are consistent with
those goals. In other words, we are really talking about a matter of
organizational politics and pragmatic business practices in my opinion, not
legal counsel.

Of course, many of the issues we discuss relate to legal questions, but so
do front page stories in the morning newspaper.  OSI, like other open source
groups, wants to encourage software developers to develop and use software
under the open source business model. Some of us on this list are lawyers
and participate in the license discussions for educational and open
discussion purposes.  As a law professor and writer on issues of law and
technology, I am here to learn and share knowledge. Most people, I think,
understand that when it comes to obtaining legal counsel, you must hire a
lawyer.

-Rod