Question Regarding Derived Works

[Chuck Swiger]

David Dillard wrote:
> Item #3 in the open source definition states that "The license must
> allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be
> distributed under the same terms as the license of the original
> software."
>  
> Would a license that states that existing interfaces in the code cannot
> be changed [violate] this item?

Yes.

An OSD-compliant license cannot require that all derivative works be RFC-1234 
compliant because that prevents the Open Source community from using your code 
to create a competing RFC-1235 standard, if someone was motivated to do so.

However, if you provide documentation which claims your source code is 
RFC-1234 compliant, and you request that any modified version retain RFC-1234 
compliance, you'll probably find that most people will be happy to cooperate.

-- 
-Chuck