Model Code for the OSD

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

We are assuming that there has not been complete past compliance with some
of the guidelines in the OSD; hence, this process is meant to make
compliance easier by clarifying and updating the OSD. IMHO, I think we all
know well-documented source code when we see it.

Rod

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Johnson" <david at usermode.org>
To: <lrosen at rosenlaw.com>; "'Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M.'"
<rdixon at cyberspaces.org>; "'Rod Dixon'" <rodd at cyberspaces.org>
Cc: <license-discuss at opensource.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2003 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: Model Code for the OSD


: On Saturday 18 January 2003 09:39 am, Lawrence E. Rosen wrote:
: > I would prefer requiring "all available documentation describing how to
: > modify the original work."  That means that a developer cannot hide
: > documentation that IS available simply to make others' work more
: > difficult.  /Larry
:
: I'm not even sure that "deliberately obfuscated source code" even extends
to
: the documentation. Removing documentation may be necessary to obfuscate
: source code, but removing it is rarely sufficient.
:
: The only type of documentation that is included in source code is
comments.
: Since the quality of comments in OSS projects ranges from the superb to
the
: dismal, defining obfuscation in terms of code comments is problematic. To
: take one  example, why should my modification of apache keep comments in
: place, when libsrvg has virtually none to begin with?
:
: Every section in the OSD specifically refers to the "license" or the
"rights
: attached to the program", except for section two. It needs to be read
: differently.
:
: My opinion is that "deliberately obfuscated source code" should be
decoupled
: from documentation. The quality and state of documentation is very
: subjective, and should not be a part of the OSD.
:
: --
: David Johnson
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