AW: For Approval - German Free Software License

Russell Nelson nelson at crynwr.com
Mon Nov 29 19:49:15 UTC 2004


Ian Lance Taylor writes:
 > As far as I can see, the minimal compromise which the OSI could accept
 > would be:
 > 
 > "The new version of the License becomes binding for you as soon as you
 > become aware of its publication and as soon as it has been approved by
 > the OSI."
 > 
 > (You will also want a clause to handle the case where the OSI no
 > longer exists.)

If that was the case, there would be no more license approvals, and
people would not be obligated to switch to the new license.  Your
language is sufficient.

 > The key point, I think, is this: the OSI can not delegate to any other
 > organization whether a license meets the OSD.

I think that the GFSL folks aren't asking us to do that.  They're
asking us to allow them to use the OSI-Certified mark on goods which
might not be OSI-Certified in the future.  If they changed the
license, they would have to remove all use and reference to the
OSI-Certified mark.  That would mean a total product recall if they
mentioned the OSI-Certified mark anywhere on or in the product.

Since I don't think that's possible, and since we need to control the
use of the OSI-Certified mark, that is yet another reason not to
approve the license.

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