"De-approve" the Intel Open Source License

[Ernest Prabhakar]

Hi Laura,

On Mar 29, 2005, at 12:57 PM, Laura Majerus wrote:
>
> The OSI needs a more formal procedure to allow companies to remove  
> licenses from "active license" status. If nothing else, we need to  
> make sure that all relevant parties in a corporation agree that  
> they want to change the status of a license.  We'll work on getting  
> this going.

Thanks for looking into this. I think it is essential for OSI to have  
some sort of "Legacy" category.  I don't think we can or should  
formally de-certify -- I've seen licenses and contracts that specify  
"OSI certified licenses", and it would be bad if our de-certification  
inadvertently caused some innocent third-party to suddenly be in  
breach of contract.

Having a separate list of Legacy licenses that are clearly marked as  
"Do Not Use Further, Please Relicense if Possible" -- yet are still  
nominally compliant -- seems like a fair solution.

-- Ernie P.


>
> Laura Majerus
> OSI, Director of Legal Affairs
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fink, Martin R [mailto:martin.fink at hp.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 10:39 AM
> To: Smith, McCoy; license-discuss at opensource.org
> Subject: RE: "De-approve" the Intel Open Source License
>
>
> I offer my sincere thanks to Intel Corp for this move.  This is an
> awesome piece of leadership and I congratulate you for it.
>
> This is a great move!!!
>
> Martin
>
> +==========================================================+
> | Martin Fink                  | Email: martin.fink at hp.com |
> | Vice-President               | Phone: (970) 898-7076     |
> | Open Source & Linux          | Fax:   (970) 898-4302     |
> | Hewlett-Packard Co.          |                           |
> | 3404 East Harmony Road, MS43 | Asst:  Ingrid Busch       |
> | Fort Collins, CO 80528       | Phone: (970) 898-0782     |
> +==========================================================+
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Smith, McCoy [mailto:mccoy.smith at intel.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 8:55 AM
> To: license-discuss at opensource.org
> Subject: "De-approve" the Intel Open Source License
>
> I am the attorney at Intel Corporation responsible for Intel's legal
> practices and policies relating to open source.
>
>
>
> Intel has been studying internally the issue of license proliferation.
> One step Intel would like to take to reduce license proliferation  
> (both
> internally, and externally, to Intel) is to have the "Intel Open  
> Source
> License" (aka "BSD License with Export Notice"
> http://www.opensource.org/licenses/intel-open-source-license.php )
> removed from future use as an approved OSI open source license.
>
>
>
> It does not appear that the Intel Open Source License has found  
> much use
> (there approximately 25 projects on SourceForge using the license,  
> most
> of which appear to have been able to use just the plain BSD license
> without an export notice) and therefore Intel believes the lntel Open
> Source License could be removed from the approved list without causing
> significant problems.  We do however, think that the "de-approval" of
> this license should not be retroactive to past uses, since we do not
> wish to force companies (including Intel) and individuals to have  
> to go
> through the trouble of re-licensing code they may have released in the
> past under Intel Open Source License when it was an OSI-approved
> license.  Perhaps a solution would be to categorize this license as
> "obsolete for future use" or something like that.
>
>
>
> I hadn't seen anyone on the mailing list make this sort of request
> before so this may be a new idea that OSI hasn't ever done.  If you  
> have
> any questions on this particular request or need more information,  
> feel
> free to contact me via the license-discuss list (to which I am now
> subscribed).
>
>
>
> McCoy Smith
>
> Intel Corporation
>
> Legal Department
>
> mccoy.smith at intel.com
>
>
>
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