OSL Version

[Lawrence E. Rosen]

Hi Eric the Fish,

You raise an important question about the proviso in section 1(c) of the
OSL.  To which version of the Open Software License does the last
portion of this sentence refer? 

> "c) to distribute copies of the Original Work and Derivative
> Works to the public, with the proviso that copies of Original 
> Work or Derivative Works that You distribute shall be 
> licensed under the Open Software License;"

As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't mind if "the Open Software License"
meant "this or any later version of the Open Software License."  But
that would require people to trust me not to change the OSL in
uncomfortable ways.  I don't deserve that trust.

I think the ambiguity of this term should be at the risk of the Licensor
because he chose the license.  

Is there concensus to change "the Open Software License" to "this
version of this License" in sections 1(c) of the OSL?  My preference is
to retain the current intentional ambiguity for the time being until a
responsible organization can be found to take responsible stewardship of
the OSL.  Then maybe the community should trust the wording "this or any
later version...."

I read somewhere that Mozilla organization faced this issue with their
license.  I don't remember how that was resolved.

/Larry Rosen

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric the Fish [mailto:lists at lockdown.co.uk]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 4:07 PM
> To: lrosen at rosenlaw.com
> Cc: license-discuss at opensource.org
> Subject: OSL Version
> 
> 
> I've been following the discussions on this list for some
> time now, and have been most interested in the progress of 
> your OSL license.
> 
> One thing that I've wondered about though is the bit that says.
> 
> "c) to distribute copies of the Original Work and Derivative
> Works to the public, with the proviso that copies of Original 
> Work or Derivative Works that You distribute shall be 
> licensed under the Open Software License;"
> 
> Does this refer to any version of the OSL, the same version
> as used for the original work or the same version and later?  
> Or does it matter?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Ivan Lucas
> (IANAL)
> 
> 

--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3