Silly question: are usage restrictions covered by the OSD?

[Chris F Clark]

I'm sorry, but I feel slightly mis-quoted here, where Chuck Swiger
wrote:

> In contrast to the type of usage restriction that Chris was
> proposing, the GPL makes no attempt to prevent a user of Emacs from
> using that editor to produce proprietary software, and I think that
> is as it should be, at least in general.

I believe I did not propose a usage restriction, except as clarifying
what another person (Arnoud Engelfriet) wrote.  I don't believe usage
restrictions except for those inherent in copyright law, are
compatible with the OSD (at least not compatible with the spirit of
the OSD).

On the other hand, I did mention a license concept based upon the
restriction of creating derived works.  I hope that such a license
could be OSD compatible, because it does not descriminate on "use" (at
least as programmers think of use, that is running the program), but
it does prevent certain forms of derived works--in the case I
mentioned, trying to prohibit the creation of secret non-open-source
derivatives.

Perhaps a clause of the OSD should read that "the license should not
discriminate against (or prohibit) any form of usage which is not
already proscribed by copyright law".  That would be a very strong
bound on what open source licenses can regulate.

Hope this helps,
-Chris

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Chris Clark                    Internet   :  compres at world.std.com
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