[License-discuss] Open source license with obligation to display an attribution

Tue Dec 4 10:34:16 UTC 2018

Yes, a cluttering of logos is clearly a risk if everyone did this. 

It is not meant as 'advertising' in the conventional sense - rather, it is a form of attribution. We are a team within a public sector agency. Locally we prefer to release most of our products as open-source, but this is somewhat under suspicion from some folk up the chain. Our argument for doing it is that we have bigger impact this way, and that as a public sector organization it is appropriate for the community as a whole to get the benefit of our work. But our bosses are also accountable further up the chain for the public funding that supports the work, and need to have evidence of its impact. If credits were visible on all the websites that had deployed our applications, then that would do. 

In the cases that we know about we've been able to negotiate it through informal channels. But there are other deployments that we come across that we were unaware of, and the one-on-one approach is not scalable above a handful. It would all be cleaner if we could just point to a license that included the requirement, then if that were respected (!) then everyone would be happy - the users would have open-source software, and we would have evidence that it was in use to show to our paymasters. 

I don't think the intention is counter to the spirit of the OSD. But is there a better approach? 

Simon 

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2018 07:07:41 +0000
From: <Simon.Cox at csiro.au>
To: <license-discuss at lists.opensource.org>
Subject: [License-discuss] Open source license with obligation to
        display an attribution?
Message-ID:
        <3155add0d064491fad317abcb622abe4 at exch1-mel.nexus.csiro.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Is there an open source license that also includes an obligation on the user to make public attribution of use of the software in a specific form?

What I have in mind is for software that is used to drive a web-site, where we just want to request that a logo with the words "Powered by ACME technology" is displayed on the website.

Simon J D Cox
Research Scientist - Environmental Informatics<https://research.csiro.au/ei>
Team Leader - Environmental Information Infrastructure
CSIRO Land and Water<http://www.csiro.au/Research/LWF>

E simon.cox at csiro.au<mailto:simon.cox at csiro.au> T +61 3 9545 2365 M +61 403 302 672
   Mail: Private Bag 10, Clayton South, Vic 3169
   Visit: Central Reception, Research Way, Clayton, Vic 3168  ///honey.zebra.chip<https://w3w.co/honey.zebra.chip>
   Deliver: Gate 3, Normanby Road, Clayton, Vic 3168
people.csiro.au/Simon-Cox<http://people.csiro.au/Simon-Cox>
orcid.org/0000-0002-3884-3420<http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3884-3420>
researchgate.net/profile/Simon_Cox3<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simon_Cox3>
github.com/dr-shorthair<https://github.com/dr-shorthair>
lov.okfn.org/dataset/lov/agents/Simon%20Cox<http://lov.okfn.org/dataset/lov/agents/Simon%20Cox>
Twitter @dr_shorthair<https://twitter.com/dr_shorthair>
Skype dr_shorthair<skype:dr_shorthair>
https://xkcd.com/1810/

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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2018 01:24:03 -0800
From: Danese Cooper <danese at gmail.com>
To: license-discuss at lists.opensource.org
Subject: Re: [License-discuss] Open source license with obligation to
        display an attribution?
Message-ID:
        <CALKqTu-Z_vPzjXg7Z-1W_+ZcJUTESOLZHq6WMvtfNse-hOAHrw at mail.gmail.com>
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Yes. We created one back in 2002, in response to SugarCRM decision to
impose a ridiculous requirement that their attribution be permanently
displayed in the center of any page using derivatives of their code. We
felt that the persistence of the display in their requirement was an
obvious attempt to halt reuse of their code, which is counter to the spirit
of the OSD. But we did decide that a brief attribution might be a desirable
gesture in some cases. The resulting OSI-approved (though seldom-used)
license is called the Attribution Assurance License.

D

On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 11:08 PM <Simon.Cox at csiro.au> wrote:

> Is there an open source license that also includes an obligation on the
> user to make public attribution of use of the software in a specific form?
>
>
>
> What I have in mind is for software that is used to drive a web-site,
> where we just want to request that a logo with the words ?Powered by ACME
> technology? is displayed on the website.
>
>
>
> *Simon J D Cox *
>
> Research Scientist - Environmental Informatics
> <https://research.csiro.au/ei>
>
> Team Leader ? Environmental Information Infrastructure
>
> CSIRO Land and Water <http://www.csiro.au/Research/LWF>
>
>
>
> *E* simon.cox at csiro.au *T* +61 3 9545 2365 *M* +61 403 302 672
>
>    *Mail:* Private Bag 10, Clayton South, Vic 3169
>
> *   Visit: *Central Reception, Research Way, Clayton, Vic 3168
> ///honey.zebra.chip <https://w3w.co/honey.zebra.chip>
>
> *   Deliver: *Gate 3, Normanby Road, Clayton, Vic 3168
>
> people.csiro.au/Simon-Cox
>
> orcid.org/0000-0002-3884-3420
>
> researchgate.net/profile/Simon_Cox3
> <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simon_Cox3>
>
> github.com/dr-shorthair
>
> lov.okfn.org/dataset/lov/agents/Simon%20Cox
>
> Twitter @dr_shorthair <https://twitter.com/dr_shorthair>
>
> Skype dr_shorthair
>
> https://xkcd.com/1810/
>
>
>
> *PLEASE NOTE*
>
> The information contained in this email may be confidential or privileged.
> Any unauthorised use or disclosure is prohibited. If you have received this
> email in error, please delete it immediately and notify the sender by
> return email. Thank you. To the extent permitted by law, CSIRO does not
> represent, warrant and/or guarantee that the integrity of this
> communication has been maintained or that the communication is free of
> errors, virus, interception or interference.
>
>
>
> *Please consider the environment before printing this email.*
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> License-discuss mailing list
> License-discuss at lists.opensource.org
>
> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org
>
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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2018 09:30:14 +0000
From: David Woolley <forums at david-woolley.me.uk>
To: license-discuss at lists.opensource.org
Subject: Re: [License-discuss] Open source license with obligation to
        display an attribution?
Message-ID: <d0f39ef4-47e1-1f60-62c6-bfbdc4061c73 at david-woolley.me.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed

On 04/12/2018 07:07, Simon.Cox at csiro.au wrote:
> Is there an open source license that also includes an obligation on the
> user to make public attribution of use of the software in a specific form?
>

The original BSD licence had an advertising clause, but advertising
clauses are now considered a bad idea because effective use of the open
source concept would result in user interfaces being cluttered by dozens
of adverts.

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