Copy-Back License draft for discussion

[Thorsten Glaser]

Chris Zumbrunn dixit:

> Also, for consistency I change the occurrences of "original contributor" to
> "project" and eliminated the use of the term "software" to make the license
> even more flexible.

A few more suggestions - but note my other post about
DFSG-freeness.

| Copyback License (Draft 4)
| 
|  Redistribution and use, with or without modification, are permitted
|  provided that the following conditions are met:

That does not permit selling. In general, I'd include a few
more terms (cf. http://mirbsd.de/MirOS-Licence where some
were added by advice on this mailing list and from the ifrOSS).

Do not use the wording "without fee" as commonly seen;
use "with or without fee" instead, if you need it.

I suggest:

> Redistribution and use, with or without modification, publical
> performance, sublicencing and selling are permitted provided
> that the following conditions are met:

|  1. Redistributions must retain the copyright notices that reference this
|     license (the "Copyright Notice"), this list of conditions and the
|     following disclaimer (either in the documentation and/or other materials
|     materials provided with the distribution).
| 
|  2. The end-user documentation included with the redistribution, if any,
|     must include the following acknowledgment: "This product includes
|     contributions from" followed by the Copyright Notice. This acknowledgment
|     may also be included in the product itself, if and wherever such

s/itself/itself instead/

|     third-party acknowledgments normally appear.
| 
|  3. The name of this project must not be used to endorse or promote

The project (I'd expect "this" to refer to the licence or
work (software or documentation)), but note my native language
isn't English.

|     products derived from this project without prior written permission.
|     For written permission, contact the project by sending email to the email
|     address provided in the Copyright Notice (the "Contact Email Address").

I'd not specify the contact method. I'd just write:

> For written permission, contact the project at the address
> provided within the Copyright Notice (the "Contact Address").

|  4. Products derived from this project may not use the name of this project
|     in their name or URL, without prior written permission, which you may
|     obtain by contacting the Contact Email Address.
| 
|  5. Reasonable efforts to support this project must be made by contributing

				    the project

|     any relevant modifications and extensions back to the project, which
|     must be enabled to easily obtain such contributions.

What if I am a dictator on a small island without methods to
communicate except bottle mail, with a solar powered laptop?

I cannot enable the project to easily obtain contributions.

|  6. Alternative licensing solutions may be negotiated with the project by
|     contacting the Contact Email Address.
| 
|    THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED
| 
|    WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
|    OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
|    DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ANY CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
|    DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
|    DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE
|    GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
|    INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER
|    IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
|    OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE,
|    EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Please do not write the disclaimer in ALL CAPS, it makes
it hard to read and easy to misunderstand.

You are from Switzerland, as such you might be interested
in a non-US-specific disclaimer. I don't know if your law
is the same as German law in that respect, but look at
http://mirbsd.de/MirOS-Licence for a sample. You might
want to ask the guys from the ifrOSS for help, too.

I'd suggest to ask the debian-legal team with regards to
the DFSG-freeness (which the OSI team apparently does not
check for any longer), but I do not know their policy
about this. Still I'd check with them.

bye,
//mirabile