License Proliferation

[Lawrence Rosen]

TO: License-discuss at opensource.org

The license proliferation discussion has gone way off-track. I'd like to
propose some suggestions for addressing this issue in a systematic,
professional and legally thorough way.

   http://www.osdl.org/newsroom/articles/License_Proliferation.pdf

Thanks to OSDL for encouraging me to publish this article on their website.
I hope their gesture will reassure everyone that the license proliferation
problem needn't be a battle or a cause for unilateral action. The open
source community and its industry and government partners around the world
can help by engaging in principled dialogue. 

I believe the place to have this dialogue is at OSI's discussion list,
license-discuss at opensource.org. For those of you who merely lurk there
without speaking up, I also welcome private email. 

Thanks for listening.

/Larry

P.S. Please cross-post wherever appropriate.

Lawrence Rosen
Rosenlaw & Einschlag, technology law offices (www.rosenlaw.com)
3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482
707-485-1242  *  fax: 707-485-1243
Author of "Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and 
   Intellectual Property Law" (Prentice Hall 2004) 
   [Available also at www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm]