Question regarding a new local license approach

[Chuck Swiger]

On Mar 10, 2005, at 6:05 PM, Chris Yoo wrote:
> On a more general note, should the OSI decide to take a restrictive 
> approach
> to licensing, how does it plan to deal with the requirements of local
> jurisdictions?

People on this list can evaluate the license based on the OSD and the 
principles behind Free Software, but probably aren't going to be able 
to help you resolve issues specific to Australian law.

>  Would I, as an Australian software developer, not being able
> to get my 'Australinized' licence certified nor find a certified 
> licence
> that satisfies Australian law requirements, not be able to release 
> software
> under an 'open source' licence?

I think the OSI should approve, but not necessarily recommend, all 
OSD-compliant licenses which have gone through the standard submission 
processes.

However, I don't think it is particularly useful to keep on approving 
more licenses which balkanize the community further by adding more 
locale-specific terms and complex interactions to resolve.  Two 
suggestions to consider:

Can you write an open-source software license which is valid not just 
under Australian law, but is OK with Dutch law, US law, and everywhere 
else?

Regardless of whether you write a "universal license" or one specific 
to your country's legal code, please also consider how your license 
would interact with code licensed under commonly used licenses like the 
GPL, MPL, BSD, & MIT licenses.

Can you do something so that if (for example) someone in your country 
adopts a BSD-licensed program and relicenses it using your license, the 
end result is pleasing and conformant with Australian law?

-- 
-Chuck