[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
notifying readers that your version is not identical to the
form by that title.
3. If you submit revisions to the form to contributors for
distribution in a new version, you grant a license for your
revisions on these terms, as well as a license to the original
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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