Silly question: are usage restrictions covered by the OSD?

[Brian O'Byrne]

Arnoud,

OSD #6 talks about 'making use of the program in a specific field of 
endeavor', which seems to me to be completely compatible with FSF 
freedom 0 and incompatible with your example.

A license that restricts your use of an editor to produce closed 
source software is stopping you from making use of the program in a 
field of endeavor.

The destinction between that and restrictions on redistribution and 
derivatives is IMO very clear. Making a derivative of a program is 
not the same as making use of the program you received. Nor is 
redistributing a program (or derivative) the same as making use of 
it.

Thus a license can apply restrictions on derivatives and 
redistribution without violating OSD #6.

Summary: your example would fail OSD #6 and FSF freedom 0.

IANAL, TINLA, etc.
Brian.


On Wednesday 15 October 2003 17:51, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This may be a silly question as I'm probably overlooking something,
> but as far as I can tell the Open Source Definition does not
> forbid any general restrictions on "usage" of software. The closest
> thing is "No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor", but
> that only forbids exclusion of _some types_ of usage, not
> exclusions on usage by everyone.
>
> Would something like "You may only use this editor if you release
> all works you create with it as open source software" fail under
> OSD #6, and if not, why would it fail the OSD?
>
> The FSF says quite clearly that you should have "The freedom to
> run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0)". Is this the
> same as OSD #6 or do they indeed require something broader here?
>
> Arnoud

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