For approval: MirOS Licence Template (and question about others)

[John Cowan]

Thorsten Glaser scripsit:

> Good to hear that; fixed them except "commata" which I do want to
> retain because the word has a Latin origin. (Shouldn't matter to
> the discussion though, because it's in the explanatory text.)

It matters because "commata" is not English (except in the original
Greek sense of "short phrases", and then very obscurely).  You are
writing a license in English, and you can't just make up the English
language to suit yourself.

> Why? It's pretty common to leave out clause 3; most also leave out clause
> 4; some leave out clauses 2 and 3 but not 4 (I've seen that when checking
> for MirPorts), and minimal changes to the disclaimer "should" not be too
> worrysome.

However, even altering a single word may produce results that are not
Open Source.  Both the four-clause and the three-clause BSD license are,
but omitting the words "with or" makes it not so.  So each possibility
has to be checked individually for compliance with the OSD.  This
check may be simple, but it has to be made.

> Of couse, if that's OSI policy, we'll have to live with it; in that case
> I'll pick out the special cases and mail them.

I don't speak for OSI, but I do suggest that you do so.

-- 
When I'm stuck in something boring              John Cowan              
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