The Rails Wheels licencing system and Open Source

[Mark James]

Matthew Flaschen wrote:

> Your license plan violates more than half the points of the OSD.  "All
> packages are free of charge until used on a live website." violates OSD
> #5 and #6 (discrimination against live web site operators) and OSD #10
> because the license is specific to a particular technological use case
> (websites).  "[T]he
>   requirement to check whether they can or must purchase a licence"
> violates OSD #7 because you are requiring "execution of an additional
> license", OSD #8 because the separate license is only valid for the code
> when running on that particular website (which is a product), and OSD #3
> because the special "enhancement" to the license can not be passed on.

Matthew, I agree it violates OSD #5.

I don't think #10 is violated, because the licence actually refers
to data sources rather than websites, though websites will be the
usual situation.

Nor, numbers 7, 8, or 3, because there's no additional licence.

> So, you're right, it does violate the spirit of the OSD.  But I have to
> assume you're being deliberately dense when you say it complies with the
> letter.

That's hurtful. Remember it was said in the context of OSD #1.

> You can have your Exposed Source, but don't try to claim it's Open Source.

I've aimed for something with much more freedom for users than
simply exposed source, while providing a better mechanism to
sustain developers.

Mark