BSD-like licenses and the OSI approval process

John Cowan cowan at ccil.org
Tue Oct 16 16:01:58 UTC 2007


Chris Travers scripsit:

> Does the OSI have any sort of trademark rights to the term "open
> source?"  

No, definitively.  No such trademark exists.

> So the alternative in your mind is to certify every reasonable BSDL
> variant individually?  Or do we insist on PostgreSQL not being "Open
> Source?"

The former, I think.  Yes, it's annoying; the alternative is still more
annoying.  We can't legally protect the term "open source", but we can
in turn make life annoying for people who misuse it.

-- 
"The serene chaos that is Courage, and the phenomenon   cowan at ccil.org
of Unopened Consciousness have been known to the        John Cowan
Great World eons longer than Extaboulism."
"Why is that?" the woman inquired.
"Because I just made that word up", the Master said wisely.
        --Kehlog Albran, The Profit             http://www.ccil.org/~cowan



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