[License-discuss] Fact-gathering on OSI-approved licenses

[Pamela Chestek]

On 8/22/2019 2:22 PM, Richard Fontana wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 1:25 PM Bruce Perens via License-discuss
> <license-discuss at lists.opensource.org> wrote:
>> Pam,
>>
>> I am actually more interested in the licenses that OSI has historically rejected, and the reasons given when this has been archived.
> I agree, even though attempting to gather that information would be
> much more difficult. 
Agree that while this would be interesting and informative, I have no
idea how to go about collecting it. I don't think we can even collect it
for approved licenses. But if someone has an idea for mining information
from email archives, board minutes, and anywhere else there might be
data, let's figure it out.
> Just focusing on licenses that have been approved
> will give an incomplete and misleading picture, particularly because
> the OSI seems to have been institutionally reluctant to admit to
> having possibly made policy or administrative mistakes in distant-past
> license approvals. 
I assume that's true, but we don't know until we've gathered the facts.
The second step would be to decide what to do with what we've learned.
There are many possible outcomes - ignore, ratify, distinguish, reject
(and the discussion is sure to be lengthy and contentious). But it
starts with simply collecting the information.

Pam

Pamela S. Chestek
Chestek Legal
PO Box 2492
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-800-8033
pamela at chesteklegal.com
www.chesteklegal.com