[License-discuss] For Public Comment: The Contribution Public License

Moritz Maxeiner moritz.maxeiner at gmail.com
Sat Aug 3 21:48:38 UTC 2019


Hello,

due to me being unable to find a reciprocal software license I'm truly happy 
with I've been working on developing my own:

https://github.com/MoritzMaxeiner/contribution-public-license/blob/master/
LICENSE.org

I would - eventually - like to submit the license for OSI approval, but 
thought sharing it here, with this mailing list's audience, in order to gather 
feedback beforehand would be prudent.
The current draft is attached in plain text as LICENSE.txt and the license it 
in turn is under (due to it being derived from the Patches Back Public 
License) is attached in plain text as CHANGING.

What I wanted was a license that's as close as possible in spirit to the MIT 
license, except requiring any modifications to the software to be contributed 
back to the public under the same license.
After looking over the list of OSI-approved licenses there were three I could 
identify as being close to what I want, so here are my reasons as to why they 
aren't satisfactory for me:

Reciprocal Public License (RPL-1.5):
It's not only too long and complex for my purposes, but it also explicitly 
defers arbitration to Colorado, USA, which I cannot accept.

Eiffel Forum License, Version 2
While being sensibly short and concise it only encourages - but does not 
require - modified versions to be publicly released.

Microsoft Reciprocal License (MS-RL)
It's copy-left for things such as static linking, containers, etc. (section 3, 
paragraph A) and it deals with patents and trademarks.

I hope the above highlights that there's a particular niche that's not quite 
filled yet.

Thank you for your time,
  Moritz
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Contribution Public License 1.0 (Draft)
???????????????????????????????????????

  *Copyright Notice:* ? `Year and Copyright Holder'

  *Source Notice:* `Primary location of source code'

  You may use and distribute this software in any form, with or without
  changes, as long as you meet all of the following conditions:

  1. Ensure everyone who receives a copy of this software from you, in
     any form, also receives the text of this license and the copyright
     and source notices above.

  2. Contribute each change you make to this software as follows:
     License it under this license to the public, publish it through a
     freely accessible distribution system commonly used for similar
     changes, and ensure reasonable availability of it via one such
     publication for as long as you use or distribute this software with
     it.

        There is no warranty for this software, to the extent
        permitted by applicable law. Except when otherwise stated
        in writing the copyright holders and/or other parties
        provide this software "as is" without warranty of any
        kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not
        limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and
        fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to
        the quality and performance of this sofware is with
        you. Should this software prove defective, you assume the
        cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.

        In no event, unless required by applicable law or agreed
        to in writing, will any copyright holder, or any other
        party who makes changes to and/or distributes this
        software as permitted above, be liable to you for damages,
        including any general, special, incidental, or
        consequential damages arising out of the use or inability
        to use this software (including but not limited to loss of
        data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained
        by you or third parties or a failure of this software to
        operate with any other software, hardware, or wetware),
        even if such holder or other party has been advised of the
        possibility of such damages.

        Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim
        copies of this license.
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Mitchell's Law Form License, Version 1.1.0

Original Form Author: Artless Devices, LLC

The contributors to this form grant you a license do everything that
would otherwise violate their exclusive rights as copyright holders,
under these conditions:

***********************************************************************
* 1.  As far as the law allows, you may not sue any contributor to    *
*     this form for any legal damages or other legal remedies related *
*     to this license or the form.                                    *
***********************************************************************

  2.  If the form identifies itself by a distinctive title, and you
      make any changes to the form, other than by filling in blanks,
      that might affect its meaning, you must either remove all mention
      of the distinctive title from the form, or add a clarification
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  3.  If you submit revisions to the form to contributors for
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      author of the form to relicense under different terms of
      their choice.  The original author may assign their license to
      another contributor, who may assign in turn, and so on.

  4.  You may not use the name of any contributor to this form, or any
      organization with which they are affiliated, to promote anything.


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