Three new proposed OSD terms

Chuck Swiger chuck at codefab.com
Fri Mar 4 00:11:40 UTC 2005


Russell Nelson wrote:
> Alex Rousskov writes:
[ ... ]
>> To summarize, I think the proposed terms add another degree of complexity  
>> but will not significantly reduce the number of licenses that OSI approves  
>> in the next 10 years.
> 
> So are you saying that you see no solution to the license proliferation problem?

Yes and no.

Yes, I think that the OSI can help reduce license proliferation by encouraging 
people to reuse existing licenses.

No, I do not think anything the OSI can do is going to entirely solve the 
"problem" of authors creating new licenses if they choose to do so.

> Or are you denying the existance of the problem?

License proliferation apparently is a problem for some people.  The people 
most affected are those who redistribute lots of third-party software, such as 
OS vendors like HP or CD-ROM vendors like Walnut Creek.

It's a minor issue, or a non-issue, for many others.  An end-user who does not 
try to redistribute software probably could care less about the matter.

-- 
-Chuck




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