[License-discuss] OSI definition

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Gil Yehuda (tenorgil at gmail.com):

> I’m wondering if this license is OSD compliant by accident. Re-read
> the initial question on this thread and you’ll see that this license
> does not say what the author seems to wish it did.
> 
> Meaning: I don’t see how this license (as written) prevents employees
> at a Big Company from using the code to build software that provides
> profit to the shareholders. The restrictions (as written and explained
> to this list) only apply to *legal entities with shareholders and
> employees,* but does not apply to people. As explained explicitly, any
> group of people can use code licensed under Leftcopy for any endeavor.
> A team of engineers at any company can use the code under the terms of
> the license, for anything they please. They can make a product for
> profit. Only the company itself can’t use the code.

Hmm.  It is inherent in the notion of corporations and similar artifical
legal entities (to my knowledge the only things the two Leftcopy
licences' phrase "having shareholders entitled to receive dividends
from profits" -- the more-sizeable of which are deemed "Big Companies"
-- can map to) that they can act, ever, only through agents.

The two licences' notion of "use by any Big Company" is poorly defined.
Well, undefined, really.  So:  A judge might very well rule it to mean
"usage carried out by an individual within a corporate agency context
such as, without exception, employment or contracting", or maybe not.

In any event, one might reasonably object to this pair of licences
(Leftcopy Revolutionary License 1.0 and Leftcopy Transitional License
1.0) on grounds of them simply being poorly drafted and likely to shoot
participating parties in their respective and figuratively-collective
pedal extremities.

-- 
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Rick Moen Unless I’m remiss,             This limerick’s not any worse.
rick at linu The neat thing is this:                        -- Zach Weiner
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