[License-discuss] FAQ entry (and potential website page?) on "why standard licenses"?
Miles Fidelman
mfidelman at meetinghouse.net
Mon Apr 28 15:40:29 UTC 2014
Lawrence Rosen wrote:
>
> Simon Phipps wrote:
>
> > Mind you, OSI has described itself as a standards body for open
> source licenses
>
> > for a long time, see http://opensource.org/about (I believe that
> text used to be
>
> > on the home page).
>
> Perhaps, but that term has thus been misused. There is absolutely
> nothing about OSI – its governance policies, its procedures, its
> membership rules, its board selections, or its activities – that would
> in any sense qualify OSI as a standards organization.
>
Can you elaborate on that please? OSI appears to be at least partially
acting as a standard formation organization (particularly vis-a-vis the
"Open Source Definition"). In your opinion, what precludes it from
acting as a voluntary standards organization in a manner similar to
IEEE, ISOC (IETF), W3C, and so forth. Arguably, its governance is a
mess - for example bylaws that state it's not a membership organization,
while at the same time soliciting members - but is that a show-stopper?
Miles Fidelman
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
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