For Approval: Microsoft Permissive License

[Chris Travers]

Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote:
> Bill Hilf <billhilf at microsoft.com> writes:
>   
>> I'm unclear how some of your questions are related to our license
>> submissions, which is what I believe this list and the submission
>> process are designed to facilitate.  You're questioning things such
>> as Microsoft's marketing terms, press quotes, where we put licenses
>> on our web site, and how we work with OEMs - none of which I could
>> find at http://opensource.org/docs/osd.
>>     
>
> Basically, Chris doesn't want the OSI do approve a license submitted
> by an organization of which he personally disapproves, regardless of
> the merits of the license itself.  Hey, I can sympathize - personally,
> I really don't approve of the FSF, and I'd love to see the OSI turn
> down the GPLv3.
>   
Well put.  I would add that I think the OSI should turn down any 
licenses from any submitters (FSF, Microsoft, or otherwise) if there are 
unanswered valid concerns about how well it meets the OSD.  But I think 
approval discussion should be limited to the scope of the license though 
polite requests may be broader.
> Except I wouldn't, really, because then the OSI would lose every shred
> of credibility and quickly become irrelevant - just like it would if
> it failed to carefully consider the licenses submitted by Microsoft,
> or to approve them if they were found to adhere to the OSD.
Agreed.  I do think that the license proliferation questions are valid 
but should not be grounds for rejecting the license.  I think it is 
perfectly reasonable to ask "do you *really* need these licenses?  Would 
you consider adopting existing licenses instead?"    But I would not 
suggest rejecting the license based on any answer.

>   I don't
> want the OSI to lose its credibility and become irrelevant, and I
> believe that both licenses submitted by Microsoft are OSD-compliant.
>   
See my points above in response to Chris's request for information.  I 
would further note that many of the answers to Chris's questions were 
actually found in the archive of this thread :-)

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers
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