For Approval: Socialtext Public License ("STPL")

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:39:01 +0100, Ross Mayfield  
<ross.mayfield at socialtext.com> wrote:

Only commenting on the "Network Use" part.

> 1.2  Network Use.  If the Covered Code as You received it is intended to
> interact with users through a computer network and if, in the version You
> received, such a user has the opportunity to request transmission to that
> user (whether through an Electronic Distribution Mechanism or otherwise)  
> of the complete Source Code of the Covered Code, You must not remove that
> facility from the Contributor Version, and must offer an equivalent
> opportunity for all users interacting with the Contributor Version  
> through a computer network to request immediate transmission by HTTP of  
> the complete Source Code of the Contributor Version.

You might want to define "facility" too. It's not clear whether it is the
functionality of requesting download of source, or the concrete covered
implementation of it, that must not be removed. If it's the former, then
"must not remove" is irrelevant, as the next part of the sentence says that
it must exist anyway. If it's the latter, it is a problem.

Consider the case where you have a complicated network application covered
by this lincense. I find that at the heart of that application is a very
efficient connection queue implementatation (or something similar  
low-level)
and I want to use *just* that for my own network application, which will
be placed under the same lincese.

This license then prevents me from omitting the implemented facility to
request source from my program, even though I have another way of providing
source.

Generally, a "must not remove" requirement on code is a bad idea, so I'm
hoping it's a "must provide functionality" requirement.


Also consider the case where I find that the covered code contains a very
efficient implementation of a MultiMap, or similar generic data structure.
I want to use that in a *non*-networked, off-line, application. This is not
possible, as there is no way for the non-networked application to offer
source code download, though that might be leviated by distributing the
source code with the application. Ofcourse, that would be the "FILE"  
protocol,
not HTTP :) The HTTP requirement has already been commented on.

/L
-- 
Lasse R. Nielsen - atwork at infimum.dk
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