[License-discuss] FAQ entry for slight variations in licenses?

[Luis Villa]

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 10:19 PM, Luis Villa <luis at tieguy.org> wrote:
> A comment on the ISC license page (found by Engel- thanks!) points out
> that there is more than one variation of the ISC license. This is a
> common issue for the older permissive licenses, unfortunately.
>
> Driven by this question, I think we might want a FAQ entry that
> answers the following question:
>
> Q: "I know about a variant of an approved license that differs from
> the approved license by only one or two words. Is the variant also an
> approved license?"
>
> A: Something along the lines of: "Many older licenses have a variety
> of minor variations in the language. Unfortunately, it is not possible
> for OSI to review every variation, so we cannot say if a given
> variation is approved."

After the inconclusive thread on this issue a few months ago, I've
created a FAQ entry along these lines:

-----------
Is a license an Open Source license if it is just a few words
different from a license listed on your web site?

Many older licenses, such as the BSD license, have several variations
that differ only by a few words or sentences. Unfortunately, it is not
possible for OSI to approve every variation, so we cannot say if a
specific variation is approved. Where possible, please avoid using
these variants, and instead use the same version used on the OSI
website.
----------

I remain open to suggestions to improve the answer, with the exception
that I'm not interested in an answer that suggests that each of these
should be submitted individually to OSI.

I do remain open to discussing how to improve the situation by
systematically analyzing the most common/popular variants if Gerv,
Daniel, or others want to discuss that.

Thanks-
Luis