OSD#5 needs a patch?

[Lawrence E. Rosen]

Since the topic has come up, I can tell you that I've been working quietly
to revise the OSD for clarity.  I have summarized the OSD
anti-discrimination provisions as shown below, and written the annotation
below it to explain.

Your suggestions and comments are encouraged.  Do you think this adequately
explains what we mean by "discrimination?"  How would you make it clearer?

Ignore the fact that this combines several of the existing OSD provisions
into a different #6.  I'm rewriting and renumbering them all.  :-)  Don't
worry, it's only a preliminary draft; we would need lots of agreement before
the OSD is changed!  Mostly I'm writing this now so I can explain the OSD in
my own presentations, and so that I can try to explain what the OSI board
looks for when deciding whether to approve licenses.  

/Larry Rosen

************

6. Open source licenses may not discriminate against persons or groups,
fields of endeavor or types and brands of technology.

Proponents of open source software insist that software not be a
battleground on which political or philosophical or business wars are waged.
In many jurisdictions around the world, discrimination on the basis of race,
age, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, health status, and
other personal characteristics is always illegal.  This open source
principle is intended to extend that broad list, not to replace it.  To be
consistent with this open source principle, all terms and conditions of the
license must demonstrably encourage rather than discourage software freedom
for all licensees.

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