Open source shareware?

[phil hunt]

On Thursday 08 November 2001  4:05 pm, Forrest J. Cavalier III wrote:
> Can someone point out the OSD violation of a shareware
> license such as the following?  I realize it violates
> the spirit of the OSD, but I cannot find where it violates
> the "letter" of the OSD.  The OSD is silent on "use" and
> I think this illustrates the problem.

I think you are right.

> Russ Nelson has indicated that the specific wording of the OSD
> is important.  Can we find a way that the OSD rejects this kind
> of license?

AFAICT, this license is OSD-compliant. Obviously this was not the
intent of the writers of the OSD, which means we need to consider
amending it.

The license in question:

> As long as this permission notice and disclaimer are included, any
> person obtaining a copy of this software may distribute this
> software or derivatives.
>
> If you decide to run the software after a 30 day evaluation period,
> you must pay a fee of $20 to <copyright holder.>

-- 
*** Philip Hunt *** philh at comuno.freeserve.co.uk ***

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