License committee report for January 2008

[Russ Nelson]

I'm the chair of the license approval committee.  This is my report
for the current set of licenses under discussion.  This finishes up
the licenses submitted to license-discuss.

Title: the unnamed license used for the Multics release
Submission: 
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:msp:14716:pljfldpnccljepadnbhk
License: In the submission
Comments: Cowan, Moen, Flashen agree that it's an Open Source
  license.  Flashen would prefer them to use a different license, but
  wouldn't we all?
Recommend: approval, placement in non-reusable category because of
  named copyright holders and required historical background.

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Title: Open Source Hardware License 
Submission: 
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:12911:200707:jmkojcilhopeddgknmdj
Withdrawn:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:14689:200711:iakenbbilmlclankalbe

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Title: Minimal Library License (MLL)
Submission:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:14690:200711:mgjjfbndjmpjbjhbdnbp
Comments: This approval request is not actionable since the submittor
  proposes one license or another license.
Recommend: no action

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Title: The Simplified BSD License 
Submission:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:13962:200709:epiemomifonkahmoahjh
Comments: The board sent this license back to the submittor because
  the license is identical to the FreeBSD license, yet the FreeBSD
  license is more well-known.  The submittor has refused to change the
  name of his submission:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:14760:oojmkoabkddapheodgme
Recommend: Modifying the New BSD License template so that the third
  clause is optional.  In this manner, both the FreeBSD license and
  the Dag-Erling's Simplified BSD License will fit into the template
  with no license proliferation problems.

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Title: The Boost Software License, Version 1.0 (BSL1.0)
Submission:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:14481:200710:meigodkpcglbcpolcpgc
Discussion follows this posting:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:14120:200709:bakbhhjpafpgoioklknn
License: http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt
Comments: Travers and Flashen agree it complies with the OSD.  Cowan
  points out that ti doesn't grant the right to distribute derivative
  works.  Flashen points out that the BSD license doesn't either.
  The license is closest to the MIT license, but gives the additional
  release from needing to include the copyright notice in binaries.
Recommend: Approval

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Title: Reciprocal Public License 1.5
Submission:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:13076:200707:kdcakaahmlnjkcfaaijd
    also see the 1.3 Revision (never formally submitted):
  http://www.crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:11460:200604:jdibjjcfcadiapdjgmig
Discussion:
  (there was no discussion, so the submittor restarted the discussion
  process under the subject "RPL 1.5 discussion")
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:14051:200709:dllmhdnfpdeigehepkma
Comments: Flashen suggests that we wait to approve this license until
  we have more experience with attribution.  Yet, this is an update
  to an existing license, so the question is not whether the license
  is a good license or not (the board pretty much agreed on approving
  it back in 2002 that it was not likely to get much update), but
  whether the changes increase or decrease its compliance with the
  OSD.
Recommend: Approval with deprecation of RPL 1.1.

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Title: THINGIEsthetic Permissive License
Submission:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?17:mss:2:jkbdgnklpfdkfffnncgj
Discussion:
  http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?17:dds:0:200712#b
Comments: The name of this license must be modified.  Why?  Look at
  the discussion.  We're not ready for the use of unicode characters
  in license names.  (This is my own personal comment, but I hope that
  the evidence will convince everyone who doesn't agree with me.)
  Rosen suggests that this license is worthless because it is too
  simple.  Nobody has explicitly said whether the license complies
  with the OSD, but it's so short and simple that it MUST, mustn't it?
Recommend: Return to the submittor for revision.

-- 
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