For Approval: Panda3D Public License Version 1.0

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

Although we are discussing the specific terms of a particular license, of
course, my comments are not meant to constitute or substitute for legal
advice.

The Panda3D license makes a much better license template than the APSL; even
in revised form, the APSL is wordy and less than clear at times. I think
your lawyer did a good job.

I think this license will warrant OSD approval; I have a couple suggestions,
however.

Clause 1 appears to be your mutual assent clause. Good. I would suggest,
however, that the last sentence couple sentences be clearly written in the
conjunctive or disjunctive (I suspect the drafter meant to use the
disjunctive).

Clause 6 (the treaded anti-advertising clause) is understandable, but is it
really needed? If there is no implied or explicit right to use a Disney
trademark or service mark anyway, why is the clause necessary? The
anti-advertising clauses have been a source of discontent with free software
folks, but I do not think the OSD strictly applies.

(Minor point here) Clause 7 is informative, but it says nothing about the
relations between licensor and licensee; hence, I am not sure it warrants
the prominence of an entire clause of the body of the license.

Clause 8 is unclear after the first sentence, which is probably all that is
needed. Sublicensing?



I feel obligated to mention that using approved OSI licenses as useful
templates in drafting makes good sense, but as touchstones does not.

Rod


Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M.
Author: Open Source Software Law
Best points of contact:
Blog: http://opensource.cyberspaces.org
e-mail:rdixon at cyberspaces.org
voice:202-361-0797
fax:202-521-9317






----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Cowan" <cowan at mercury.ccil.org>
To: "Jesse Schell" <jns at cs.cmu.edu>
Cc: <license-discuss at opensource.org>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 10:51 PM
Subject: Re: For Approval: Panda3D Public License Version 1.0


: Jesse Schell scripsit:
:
: > I believe the license was loosely based on the Apple Public Source
: > License.  The lawyer who drafted the Panda3D license left the company
: > some time ago, and I haven't been able to reach him. Obviously, the
: > Apple license itself wouldn't suffice, since it explicitly names Apple,
: > where the Panda3D license names Disney instead.
:
: If you globally replace "Apple" with "Disney", the result will be
: trivially Open Source and will be no problem.  It's possible that Apple
: might object, but not very likely.
:
: > 4. [...]
: > An electronic copy of the source code for all modifications
: > made to the Software are to be forwarded to Licensor at
: > panda3d-owner at yahoogroups.com within 90 days of the date of the
: > modifications.
:
: Clauses like this are unreasonably burdensome on the makers of distros,
: who typically have to make hundreds of patches to get everything
: working together.  Having to send hundreds of copies of source code
: to different locations every time there is a new release is just too
: hard.
:
: The license should be changed to require that the licensor be notified
: of the location from which modifications can be downloaded.  In that
: way, there is only a single transmission required from the licensee,
: not a whole series of them.
:
: If this problem is fixed, I see no problems with OSI approval.  IANAL,
: TINLA, IANA OSI board member either.
:
: -- 
: You let them out again, Old Man Willow!                 John Cowan
: What you be a-thinking of?  You should not be waking!
jcowan at reutershealth.com
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: Bombadil is talking.
www.ccil.org/~cowan
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