A prototype License Wizard up and running

[Justin Clift]

Brendan Scott wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm new to the list.  I'm a lawyer based in Sydney Australia.  Justin 
> Clift pointed me to this discussion.

Hi Brendan,

(As an aside for people, Brendan assists a lot of the OSS groups and 
businesses in Australia, and from memory has been called upon by various 
Australian Gov bodies for OSS related matters as well)


> I think you need to determine what you want to achieve from a wizard.

Definitely.  We outlined an initial thought of "lets make a wizard in 
the same ilk of the CC license one" and things have started growing from 
there.

For an initial/first license guide, I feel we should have it's purpose 
be to guide "people" who are new to OSS licensing towards the 
appropriate license(s) for their software.

"People" in this case is still rather undecided, as it has been pointed 
out the developers, end users, and business people may each need 
different approaches.  So for this exercise we should decide who to 
cater to.

 From my point of view, I'm not fussed, and can move forward with any of 
them.


> Depending on how it is implemented, a wizard could have the effect of 
> either consolidating licence usage (by directing people to, or only 
> dealing with 3-5 annointed licences), or diffusing it (by attempting to 
> give equal airplay to each of them).
> 
> I think each of these involves a bit of second guessing what the 
> licensor wants to achieve, the second option especially so.

Yes, we may need a wizard to ask extra questions in some instances, or 
instead accept that second guessing may be needed (with appropriate 
disclaimers).


> I think the CC wizards are a little easier conceptually because they 
> have structured and unified their licences around a couple of simple 
> concepts.  This is not true of open source licences. 

Quite a spread here eh?  ;)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

> Brendan

-- 
Executive Director
Digital Distribution Global Training Services Pty. Ltd.
Premier OpenOffice.org and StarOffice Online Training providers
http://www.digitaldistribution.com