For Approval: Open Source Software Alliance License

Wed Sep 24 22:05:53 UTC 2003

HTML version: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~seanc/ossal/ossal.html
TXT version:  http://people.FreeBSD.org/~seanc/ossal/ossal.txt

The OSSAL is the most similar to the BSD license.  This is a
derivative license in that it is modeled after the BSD license,
however it prevents code or objects from being used by GPL'ed bits.
The reason for these addions being that as a language author, I don't
want any of the modules written by the open source community to be
GPL'ed as GPL'ed modules are of no use to businesses and the language
is centered around businesses that use and contribute open source
code.

The OSSAL does not prevent OSSAL bits from being distributed next to
non-OSSAL or GPL'ed bits.  It does prevent linking with GPL'ed bits,
but OSSAL is just as restrictive as the GPL in that way... except the
OSSAL allows linking to software that is artisticly licensed, licensed
under the Apache license, MIT License, BSD License, etc.

I've attached the full version text version of the license as found at
http://people.FreeBSD.org/~seanc/ossal/ossal.txt.

Here is the analysis:

### BEGIN LICENSE TEMPLATE ###
    All of the documentation and software included in the <RELEASE> and
    <SOFTWARE> Releases is copyrighted by <AUTHOR>.

    Copyright <YEARS>
            <AUTHOR>.  All rights reserved.

    Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
    modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
    met:
    1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
    2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
       documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

Discussion: These are the same as the 2 and 3 clause license for the
BSD license.

    3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
       should, in good faith, display the following acknowledgment:
    This product includes software developed by the <AUTHOR> and its contributors.

Discussion: Non-legally binding clause that asks for recognition, but
isn't required.

    4. Redistributions of source code may not be used in conjunction
       with any software license that requires disclosure of source
       code (ex: the GNU Public License, hereafter known as the GPL).
    5. Redistributions of source code in any non-textual form (i.e.
       binary or object form, etc.) may not be linked to software that is
       released with a license that requires disclosure of source code
       (ex: the GPL).

Discussion: These two clauses prevent OSSAL code from being used in
conjunction with GPL code, but don't prevent distribution along side
of GPL bits.

    THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY <AUTHOR> AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS''
    AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
    TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
    PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL <AUTHOR> OR
    CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
    SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
    LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF
    USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED
    AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
    LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
    ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
    POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Discussion: The holdsharmless clause as provided by the BSD license.
### END TEMPLATE ###

-- 
Sean Chittenden
-------------- next part --------------
OSSAL - Open Source Software Alliance License

Table of Contents:
 Key
 Template
 Discussion
 Footnotes
 Download
 Comments, Questions, and Discussion

KEY:

Below is an OSSAL template.  To generate your own license, change the values of <AUTHOR>, <RELEASE>, <SOFTWARE>, and <YEARS> from their original values as given here, and substitute your own.

  <AUTHOR> = The Regents of the University of California. (ex: "The Regents of the University of California.", "PostgreSQL Global Development Group", "Joe Schmoe")
  <RELEASE> = FreeBSD 5.3 (ex: "FreeBSD 5.3", "PostgreSQL 7.4")
  <SOFTWARE> = FreeBSD (ex: "FreeBSD", "PostgreSQL", "Apache webserver")
  <YEARS> = 2003 (ex: "2003", "2001, 2002, 2003", "2001-2003", "2000-2002,2004")

TEMPLATE:

Here is the license template:

### BEGIN LICENSE TEMPLATE ###
All of the documentation and software included in the <RELEASE> and
<SOFTWARE> Releases is copyrighted by <AUTHOR>.

Copyright <YEARS>
	<AUTHOR>.  All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
   should, in good faith, display the following acknowledgment:
This product includes software developed by the <AUTHOR> and its contributors.
4. Redistributions of source code may not be used in conjunction
   with any software license that requires disclosure of source
   code (ex: the GNU Public License, hereafter known as the GPL).
5. Redistributions of source code in any non-textual form (i.e.
   binary or object form, etc.) may not be linked to software that is
   released with a license that requires disclosure of source code
   (ex: the GPL).

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY <AUTHOR> AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL <AUTHOR> OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN
IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
### END TEMPLATE ###

DISCUSSION:

    The Open Source Software Alliance (hereafter known as "OSSAL"), is
designed to be a business friendly Open Source Software license that
encourages businesses to release or make use of OSSAL software (OSSAL
is a BSDL-like license).  The intent of OSSAL is akin to the phrase,
"if you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back."  With OSSAL
software, a business is able to use and incorporate existing software
that is licensed under the OSSAL or other BSDL-like licenses.  The
incorporated software can be sold.  A business can lend resources to
an OSSAL project and not waive its right to make money from the
software.  By allowing other businesses to have access to non-trade
secret software under the terms of the OSSAL, other businesses can
invest in improving the software.  Both businesses win by
collaborating.  If a business keeps the changes in house and does not
contribute them back to the project, the business incurs a reoccurring
cost for maintaining that software.  The joint nature of OSSAL
software reduces maintenance costs of software.  The extra engineers
and eyes inspecting the code will increase the quality of the code in
terms of functionality and reduce the number of bugs.  OSSAL is
software reciprocity.

    If a business invests in software released under the terms of the GPL
(or a GPL-like license), the money that the business invested into
developing the software is unrecoverable because the software that was
the target of the investment is not commercially viable to the
business that invested in the development effort[1].  The exception to
the software's viability is being able to provide support or
documentation for the software.  If a business manager or engineer
realizes this, one of two things will happen: 1) he or she is going to
dedicate as little resources as possible into solving the problem
because work on GPL software has zero return on investment outside of
satisfying a business's immediate needs, or 2) he or she is going to
realize that it is of no consequence to the business if the quality of
the investment is high or low, therefore they are going to err on the
side of providing a lower quality, less well thought out solution
because it could drive documentation sales or support contracts.

    As for software quality, if the theories of capitalism are true, and
the job market is a functioning market place (the higher the skilled
engineer, the more the engineer is paid.  The more the engineer is
paid, the busier the engineer is.  The more complex product generates
more income and consumes more engineering resources of increasing
skill, thus depriving the open source community of the talents of a
skilled engineer), then businesses with the most qualified engineers
are not working on any percentage of Open Source software.  By
allowing engineers to work on software that is usable by their
business, the quality of the tools of the product that the business
produces, will go up.  By Open Sourcing non-trade secret software
under the OSSAL license, it is now possible, and very potentially
likely that other businesses will invest resources into improving the
OSSAL software.  The corollary to the above statement is that the most
expendable, unimportant engineers work on GPL software and the better
software engineers work on BSDL-licensed software.

    The goal of this license is to promote businesses to open source
non-trade secret software and to contribute resources, when necessary,
to OSSAL or BSDL licensed software.  With multiple businesses using
and working on necessary bug fixes, updates, etc.: the cost of
software development, maintenance, and support goes down; the number
of bugs goes down, and; the quality of the software and its
documentation goes up.  OSSAL also discourages the use of GPL or viral
licenses as they indirectly promote lower quality software that is
widely disseminated, but not reviewed by the more highly skilled
software engineers.  By getting a group of businesses to use and
dedicate resources to OSSAL software, the group of businesses have
created an off the books, informal alliance to help one another.  "If
you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

FOOTNOTES:

  [1] The GPL requires free availability of the source code for a
product (can only charge for shipping and the material cost of the CD,
disks, etc.), requires that the recipient of the code be bound by the
GPL as well, and requires that any product that uses GPL code, also be
bound to the terms of the GPL (requiring it to be open source and
distributed free of charge if the product is sold).

DOWNLOADS:
An HTML copy of the license can be found at: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~seanc/ossal/ossal.html

COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, and DISCUSSION
If you have any comments, questions, concerns, or would like to discuss this license, please direct them to "Sean Chittenden <sean at chittenden.org>.

Last updated: Wed Sep 24 14:37:09 PDT 2003
Version: $Nexadesic: doc/ossal/ossal.xml,v 1.1 2003/09/24 21:34:40 sean Exp $