compatibility and the OSD

[Mark Shewmaker]

On Sat, 2004-09-25 at 22:04, Kevin Bedell wrote:
> 
> it may be worth considering at some point how to alter the OSD

In the past there have been a number of people requesting approval of
licenses that are less restrictive than most closed-source licenses,
often using arguments such as yours.

That is, they either request that the OSD should be interpreted such
that their license would be certified, or they request that the OSD be
modified to allow such.

As these requests sometimes seem to come up every other week, it's
pretty obvious that there is some demand for such a thing.

After giving it some thought, I now have to say that I see nothing wrong
with starting with the OSD and coming up with something that meets your
needs as well, as the needs of others who've had similar requests.

And, while I am not on the board of OSI or anything, merely a subscriber
who rarely posts, I would guess that OSI would be happy to support you
in such an endeavor by referring querents to your site.

OSI could put a link on the opensource.org website pointing to your site
and your new "Somewhat-Restricted-Source-Definition", or whatever you
decide to call it, for the benefit of those who need licenses that are
more restrictive than what the OSD allows.

If you need help in coming up with this, "SRSD", I should point out that
given that over time there have been *many* posters to this very list
who have already expressed a desire to edit the OSD just as you have,
you should be able to find many people eager to assist you:  Just search
through the list archives to find them.

Then as people come to this list asking for comments on licenses, for
those times when it turns out that they don't want to change their
license to be compatible with the OSD, but want it compatible with
something more liberal, we can then refer them to your organization.

It's really a shame that we have to continually turn away so many people
with such an interest.  It would be nice to have another site and
organization to refer them to.

-- 
Mark Shewmaker
mark at primefactor.com