OSD#5 needs a patch?

[Ben Reser]

On Tue, Oct 07, 2003 at 12:18:58AM -0300, Bruce Dodson wrote:
> OSD#5 The license must not discriminate against any person
> or group of persons.
> 
> Does that need to be expanded to state explicitly that this
> does not just apply to the license terms?  i.e. Should it
> say in addition that the license text itself must not
> contain any discriminatory or derogatory statements against
> any person or group?
> 
> Example: Take the BSD license and add to it the following:
> 
> <ethnic group> ARE PROBABLY NOT SMART ENOUGH OR SOBER ENOUGH
> TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, BUT THEY ARE PERMITTED TO TRY, JUST
> LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.  AFTER ALL, WE WOULD NOT WANT TO
> DISCRIMINATE.
> 
> 
> (This comes to mind upon thinking about the DISCUSSION
> section included in the proposed OSSAL license.)

Has this come up yet?  Wouldn't any license that otherwise complied with
the defintion by defintion allow such a statement to be removed from the
license file by the user if it offended them?  I don't see how anyone
could imply that a statement like that is a license clause.  

It doesn't seem to me that the OSSAL is making any discriminatory or
derogatory statements in its DISCUSSION section.  IMHO it's based on
some misguided goals though.  But that is an entirely different matter.

The problem with changes like what you're suggesting is they turn the
OSD into a moral position.  My understanding is that the OSI was created
to avoid the moral imperative slant of the free software camp while
promoting the practical benefits open source software.  The OSD serves
to lay out the properties of a license that gets the practical benefits.  

The non-discrimination clauses exist because a discriminatory license
eliminates one of the benefits of open source software.  However, a
discriminatory or derogatory statement which has no effect on a groups
ability to use a piece of software per the current OSD would not alter
those benefits.

That's not to say that such speach as you suggest is desireable.  It's
just that it would be entering into a moral stance as opposed to a
practical and cost/benefit stance.

-- 
Ben Reser <ben at reser.org>
http://ben.reser.org

"Conscience is the inner voice which warns us somebody may be looking."
- H.L. Mencken
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