[License-discuss] [License-review] Evolving the License Review process for OSI

[Russell McOrmond]

On Sun, Jun 2, 2019 at 10:52 PM Richard Fontana <rfontana at redhat.com> wrote:

> Also, frankly, hasn't it been the case in practice that the OSD is
> broad, vague and in some places oddly-worded enough that it can also
> be criticized as facilitating arbitrary decisionmaking?



The OSD is a great expression of the problems the community was facing at
at the time, derived from the DFSG that had been developed over the years
up to that point.

I am wondering if the OSI has considered a revision process to update the
OSD to describe and filter for the types of problems we are seeing today,
as well as clarity to avoid common misinterpretations?  The OSD shouldn't
be seen like a constitution of a country that is hard to change, but as a
codification of community values that adjusts to the changing world around
that community.

I would suggest that this process be followed up with a re-review of
licenses which were historically approved, but that don't fit within
community values.  It will always seem arbitrary if a new license is
rejected based on a problem that applies to an existing approved license.
 Existing licenses shouldn't be used as precedent to suggest OSI approves
scenarios that are outside community values.
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