[License-discuss] Tweaking the BSD license template

[Engel Nyst]

On 11/07/2013 12:35 PM, Gervase Markham wrote:
> I want to have another go at gaining consensus on making tweaks to the
> OSI's presentation of the 3-clause BSD licence
> <http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause> to reduce license
> proliferation in the long term.
>

Thank you! I also hope this will reduce time consumed unnecessarily for 
projects.

> Proposal: replace "<ORGANIZATION>" with "copyright holder" on the OSI's
> 3-Clause page, and update the surrounding text to explain the situation.
> That update would be in a similar vein to the existing explanatory sentence:
>
>    "In the original BSD license, both occurrences of the phrase
>    "COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS" in the disclaimer read "REGENTS
>    AND CONTRIBUTORS".
>
> I would argue that the above sentence also establishes a precedent that
> it's OK for the OSI copy of a historical license to be genericized in
> this non-parameterized way.
>

I think the page would look in practice like the following text. Written 
quickly to visualize the proposal, in case it helps.


<OWNER> = Regents of University of California
<YEAR> = 1998

In the original BSD license, the occurrence of "copyright holder" in the 
3rd clause read "ORGANIZATION", placeholder for "University of 
California". Both occurrences of the phrase "COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND 
CONTRIBUTORS" in the disclaimer read "REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS".

Here is the license template:

Copyright (c) <YEAR>, <OWNER>
  All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its 
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from 
this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS 
IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED 
TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A 
PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT 
HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, 
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED 
TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR 
PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF 
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING 
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS 
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.