[License-discuss] Evaluating the Enforceability of a License Should Not be a Criteria for OSI License Review

[Kevin P. Fleming]

On Wed, Oct 25, 2023, at 19:47, Nicholas Matthew Neft Weinstock wrote:
> The same makes sense in the question of enforceability.  If the license 
> is not able to grant the necessary rights because it is unenforceable, 
> how can it grant the rights necessary to satisfy the OSD?

In my experience, the enforceability of a license is derived from the ability to ensure that downstream distributors comply with the license's obligations, and not from the ability of the licensor to grant permission to make use of the licensed software.

So it is completely possible for a license to grant all permissions required by the OSD, but for its list of distribution obligations to be unenforceable for various reasons. Such a license could be approved by the OSI as an 'open source license', and yet be one that everyone is discouraged from using.