License Committee report

Russell Nelson nelson at crynwr.com
Wed Feb 18 01:20:49 UTC 2004 

I'm the chair of the license approval committee.  This is my report
for the current set of licenses under discussion.  If anybody
disagrees with my assessment of the committee's conclusions, say so
promptly.

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We've sat on this license submission for far too long.  It's a clever
and innovative license which we should approve.

Title: EU DataGrid Software License
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7072:200308:fcnekdmjcpiaemibokne
License: http://eu-datagrid.web.cern.ch/eu-datagrid/license.html
Comments:
  John Cowan: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msp:7262:eplnoepdlnfmkgagdbmp
  Ernie Prabhakar: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7262:200309:eplnoepdlnfmkgagdbmp
  Dave Presotto: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msp:7337:eplnoepdlnfmkgagdbmp
Recommend: approval.

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Minor revisions to a license we have already approved.  Clarification
of language and removal of excess parameterization.

Title: Lucent Public License Version 1.02 
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7142:200309:onciffgepemojkpkiimk
License: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/hidden/lpl102-template.html
Comments:
  Ben Reser: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7744:200402:onciffgepemojkpkiimk
Recommend: approval.

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This license, while seeming to comply with the OSD, isn't sufficiently
different from the GPL or OSL.  It's shorter, but in spite of its
length, the GPL is reasonably well understood, so the WSOSL's
shortness is not an improvement.

Title: The Wilhelm Svenselius Open Source License version 1.1 
Submission:
  Original: http://www.crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7080:200308:ekmofmlcjbbcddoaoahj
  Revised: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7086:200309:pehonmokjnclhgnhddjo
License: ttp://home.ws83.net/code/WSOSL.html
Comments:
  John Cowan: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msp:7083:ekmofmlcjbbcddoaoahj
Recommend: disapproval.

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This license puts restrictions on the use of software, specifically
modifications for private use.

Title: Public Security Interrest "PSI" License
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msp:7098:bcgogjkdclpfihdgnoil
License: 
Comments:
  John Cowan: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7098:bcgogjkdclpfihdgnoil
Recommend: disapproval.

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This license is EXTREMELY controversial.  It is a license which seems
to comply with the OSD, yet whose purpose is explicitly to be
incompatible with the GPL.  

Title: Open Source Software Alliance License
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7133:200309:ahoninpjbapbnmdbglmm
License: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~seanc/ossal/ossal.html
Comments: many, however the most cogent comment comes from Rick Moen at:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7259:ahoninpjbapbnmdbglmm
Recommend: remanding back to the author for rewording.

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MPL 1.1 with the name scratched off and replaced by CUA Office Public
License.  Danese pointed out that the submittor might be trying to
relicense code that could not be relicensed in this manner.  He
replied that his code was all newly crafted.

Title: CUA Office Public License
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7486:hdlmlbkpenifmmkhppdd
License: 
Comments: 
  Danese Cooper: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msn:7486:hdlmlbkpenifmmkhppdd
  Patranun Limudomporn: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7496:hdlmlbkpenifmmkhppdd
Recommend: approval.

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Rod Dixon made a couple of comments the day before Christmas Eve.  I
think we should contact the Panda3D folks and ask them to respond to
Rod's comments.  Otherwise I see no reason why we should not approve
this license.

Title: Panda3D Public License Version 1.0
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7499:ljampdokbpbinfhgnknf
License: http://www.etc.cmu.edu/panda3d/docs/license/
Comments:
  John Cowan: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msp:7501:ljampdokbpbinfhgnknf
  Rod Dixon: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7501:200312:ljampdokbpbinfhgnknf
Recommend: remanding.

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While I agree with the goals of the license author, he's putting
restrictions on the use of the software, and restrictions on use are
not allowed.  He points to other licenses which restrict some
modifications, but they do it at redistribution time, not at use time.
Fundamentally, the author is trying to use licensing to substitute for
trademark law.

Title: Open Test License v1.1
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7537:200401:cldkhgfpmlhkdcokelpg
Comments:
  Larry Rosen: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7541:200401:cldkhgfpmlhkdcokelpg
  Rod Dixon: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7545:200401:cldkhgfpmlhkdcokelpg
Recommend: disapproval.

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Not different enough from any existing license.  We should send it
back to them suggesting that they use an existing license.  If they
simply cannot, and must have this license, then we will approve it
upon resubmission.

Title: Linisys Open Source License v1.4
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msp:7586:empnfghoonimjegkodeb
Comments: no comments
Recommend: remand for reconsideration

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This must surely be the shortest open source license ever!  Still, we
should send it back to the author because he uses the hated word
"utilize".  Don't use utilize!  Utilize "use" instead.  Means the same
thing and avoids a phony formality.

Title: Fair License
Submission: 
  Original: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msp:7623:hhkgifnkgiiejnigaakm
  Revised: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7623:200401:hhkgifnkgiiejnigaakm
Comments: none
Recommend: remanding.

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Revisions to the currently-approved apache license.  They tried
introducing a defensive patent license clause, but too many people
shot at that flag.

Title: Apache License 2.0 
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7655:200402:jjibkpabgkibfkdpildd
License: 
Comments:
  Brian Behlendorf: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7781:200402:jjibkpabgkibfkdpildd
  John Cowan: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7797:200402:jjibkpabgkibfkdpildd
Recommend: approval.

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This license is intended to have the same legal effect as the MIT
license, only be simpler to read.  Thanks, but that doesn't make it an
improvement.  We will approve it if the author simply insists, but we
officially discourage the proliferation of substantially similar licenses.

Title: Simple Permissive License
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7654:200402:ponaihiojnjdnagclgek
License: http://zooko.com/simple_permissive_license.html
Comments:
  Ian Lance Taylor: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7656:200402:ponaihiojnjdnagclgek
Recommend: disapproval.

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There is much discussion spent deciding whether NASA can copyright
software at all.  The license itself says that no copyright is claimed
in the United States.

The only serious concern that I can see is that the license requires
the recipient to indemnify the Government of the United States against
third party lawsuits.

Title: NASA Open Source Agreement Version 1.1
Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:7698:200402:jfdgbalgdhgblndpmljm
License: http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Research/Software/Open-Source/NASA_Open_Source_Agreement_1.1.txt
Comments: ongoing as of this writing.
Recommend: more discussion.

-- 
--My blog is at angry-economist.russnelson.com  | Coding in Python
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--
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