Discuss: Submission of Sybase Open Watcom Public License v. 1.0

[David Johnson]

On Tuesday 23 April 2002 05:47 pm, Karen.Williams at sybase.com wrote:

> On behalf of Sybase, Inc., I am submitting the attached Sybase Open Watom
> Public License v. 1.0 ("License") as part of OSI's software certification
> program.

Okay, I had a beer, and calmed down a bit.

First, I am not a member of the OSI. I might not even be representative of 
the Open Source community. Don't take my previous attitude as entirely 
negative. I am more than happy to see others join our community, provided 
they attempt to somewhat follow our customs and mores.

Here's my big question and concern: What is your ultimate purpose in 
demanding a click-wrap/use-wrap clause? What advantage does it give you? If 
we can understand that, then maybe we can find some other mechanism to 
provide it.

If you wish to regulate the modificatin and distribution of the source code, 
then click-wrap/use-wrap is not necessary, since the recipient does not 
already possess that right. In order to perform those actions, they must 
either abide by your license or break the law. And even if they abide by your 
license without agreeing to it in some prescribed manner, your wishes are 
still being followed.

On the other hand, if the user does not agree to the license, what harm is 
there in allowing them to continue to use it? I'm being serious here. What 
harm is there? You gain nothing from their assent. They can't distribute or 
modify the software, of course, but you gain nothing by preventing them from 
using it.

-- 
David Johnson
___________________
http://www.usermode.org
pgp public key on website
--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3