[License-discuss] For Discussion: Cryptographic Autonomy License (CAL) Beta 2

[Bruce Perens]

It looks like this is the main reason for objection:

*No Withholding User Data*

*Throughout any period in which You exercise any of the permissions granted
to You under this License, You must also provide to any Recipient to whom
you provide services via the Work, a no-charge copy, provided in a commonly
used electronic form, of the Recipient’s User Data in your possession, to
the extent that such User Data is available to You for use in conjunction
with the Work. *


As in the previous version of the license, this attempts to extend the
reciprocal license paradigm to data which is merely processed by the
program.

As it happens in this case, the user can make a case that they already have
some right to the data, having created or provided it themselves. In the
case of some data, for example a photograph which they took, they may have
a viable ownership right. In other cases, such as simple facts, nobody owns
the data.

The ownership of the data *distracts from the main issue,* however, which
is that the license attempts to *encumber data which is processed by the
program.* This is a slippery slope which OSI should not embark upon, it
ends with licenses like Kyle's which attempt to encumber all software
processed by the program and force placement of that software under an Open
Source license.

I submit that this language still runs awry of OSD#6, since a business
which sequesters customer data to its own advantage might be obnoxious, but
it's still a field of endeavor. And it runs awry of OSD#9 to the extent
that the data can be considered software.

I am the guy on your TV saying "Let's champion data rights as human
rights!" A substantial part of the human race have seen that IBM spot by
now, it runs in Europe and Asia besides North America. I believe in data
rights, but this license is not the way to achieve them.

    Thanks

    Bruce
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