discuss: EPD CORE OPEN SOURCE LICENSE - Version 0.1

[John Cowan]

Bill Moran scripsit:

> All things considered, we could add a clause that explicitly warrants that
> we have legal ownership and the legal right to distribute the work, but I
> didn't think that was necessary.

All contributors whatever, whether original or otherwise, should warrant
their IP in their contributions, not only out of natural equity, but because
it gives the obligation to the person who is most likely to fulfill it.

>  > In the large, this license seems rather close to the QPL. Have you
>  > examined that license for suitability?
> 
> Yes, for the most part it seems very similar, but here's where I see
> differences:
> 
> Our license is designed specifically to respect the rights of anyone
> and everyone who codes extensions to the system.  Notice how explicitly
> it's stated in clause 1.  I didn't want to leave anything to chance
> or interpretation.

Why not just strip your license down to paragraph 1, something like this?
In that way it will be obviously an open-source license, without having to
carefully parse all the language to make sure nothing is being stepped on.

	This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
	modify it under the terms of the Q Public License as published
	by TrollTech AS Norway; either version 1, or (at your option)
	any later version.

	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

	Nothing in this license shall be interpreted to mean that any
	module designed to work with or distributed with this program
	must be distributed under this license. In no way shall anything
	in this license be interpreted to limit the licenses under which
	modules designed for this program may be published. In no way
	shall any module's licensing terms or interaction with any other
	module or this program be interpreted to alter or negate the
	terms of this license or the license terms of any other module.

-- 
There is / One art                      John Cowan <jcowan at reutershealth.com>
No more / No less                       http://www.reutershealth.com
To do / All things                      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
With art- / Lessness                     -- Piet Hein
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