[License-discuss] [Non-DoD Source] Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: U.S. Army Research Laboratory Open Source License (ARL OSL) 0.4.0

[Karan, Cem F CIV USARMY RDECOM ARL (US)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: License-discuss [mailto:license-discuss-bounces at opensource.org] On 
> Behalf Of Brian Behlendorf
> Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2016 4:25 PM
> To: license-discuss at opensource.org
> Subject: Re: [License-discuss] [Non-DoD Source] Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: 
> U.S. Army Research Laboratory Open Source License (ARL OSL)
> 0.4.0
>
> On Wed, 17 Aug 2016, Smith, McCoy wrote:
> > I hope you're getting a sense that there are several lawyers on this
> > mailing list -- lawyers who have years of experience looking at,
> > debating, and giving advice on the issues you identify in this
> > submission -- who think that your proposed license is a variant of
> > Apache 2.0 designed to solve a "problem" for USG users with Apache 2.0
> > that we are skeptical even exists.  Perhaps the ARL lawyers can
> > clarify what the problem is, and that we are missing something.  But I
> > think at least I am having a hard time understanding how this license
> > does anything that Apache 2.0 doesn't.
>
> Is there something that a non-governmental entity can do to help with this, 
> by simply redistributing under AL2.0 that which they obtained
> from ARL by "contract" such as this license?  E.g., if this license was used 
> as the contributor agreement to a project hosted at the Apache
> Software Foundation, could it then be redistributed by the ASF under AL2.0, 
> with appropriate credit given in a Contributing.md?  Being an
> IP laundry service for government is an awful reason to be an Apache 
> project, but if there some other reason for ARL's code to be hosted
> there or at a similar organization (whether NGO or for-profit company even) 
> that might solve the problem, and then doesn't have to
> worry about being an "open source license".  A government agency (or branch 
> of the U.S. military) isn't really a great home for the
> governance of a code base and community anyways.

Actually, this was one of the first things we looked into; not ASF directly, 
but by having a contractor take ownership, and then assign copyright back to 
the USG, or even release it on behalf of the USG.  Unfortunately, it doesn't 
work legally as there is no copyright for the contractor (or anyone else) to 
take over, so nothing to launder.

Thanks,
Cem Karan
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