[License-discuss] Retroactively disapproving licenses

[McCoy Smith]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: License-discuss <license-discuss-bounces at lists.opensource.org> On
> Behalf Of Pamela Chestek
> Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2022 11:47 AM
> To: license-discuss at lists.opensource.org
> Subject: Re: [License-discuss] Retroactively disapproving licenses
> 
> To do some foreshadowing, the Working Group that was formed to make
> recommendations for improving the license review process will soon be
> publishing its recommendation. This was originally within their remit, but the
> group agreed that it was complex enough (and frankly I think we were all a
> little tired at this point) that it should be a separate undertaking. Personally, I
> think the OSI has to tread carefully to avoid unintended consequences and
> therefore needs to have a lot more information before deciding whether and
> how to delist a license, such as:
> 
> How many projects are using the licenses How significant they are How many
> downstream users there are, and whether they have relied on the status as
> "open source" in some way, e.g., suddenly a component will have to be
> removed because it no longer has an "open source" license Whether anyone
> is doing marketing around the term "open source" for a license considered
> for delisting
> 
> I'm sure with more thought there is other information that would be
> relevant.
> 
> So McCoy, are you volunteering to head up a working group to work on this
> question? 😁
> 
Hey, not like I haven't volunteered for OSI in a related area before:
https://opensource.org/proliferation-report#:~:text=The%20purpose%20of%20this%20document%20is%20to%20report,lessen%20or%20remove%20issues%20caused%20by%20license%20proliferation.%22
😉