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As the OSI community considers approving a new "attribution" license,
there's a key point that I think has been lost in the shuffle. In
2005, the OSI approved the Adaptive Public License as satisfying all 10
requirements of the OSD. The APL includes a specific attribution
provision. It says:<br>
<br>
"As a modest attribution to the Initial Contributor, in the hope that
its promotional value may help justify the time, money and effort
invested in writing the Initial Work, the Initial Contributor may
include in <b>Part 2 of the Supplement File</b> a requirement that
each time an executable program resulting from the Initial Work or any
Subsequent Work, or a program dependent thereon, is launched or run, a
prominent display of the Initial Contributor's attribution information
must occur (the "<b>ATTRIBUTION INFORMATION</b>"). The Attribution
Information must be included at the beginning of each Source Code file.
For greater certainty, the Initial Contributor may specify in the
Supplement File that the above attribution requirement only applies to
an executable program resulting from the Initial Work or any Subsequent
Work, but not a program dependent thereon. The intent is to provide for
reasonably modest attribution, therefore the Initial Contributor may
not require Recipients to display, at any time, more than the following
Attribution Information: (a) a copyright notice including the name of
the Initial Contributor; (b) a word or one phrase (not exceeding 10
words); (c) one digital image or graphic provided with the Initial
Work; and (d) a URL (collectively, the "<b>ATTRIBUTION LIMITS</b>")."<br>
<br>
--APL, section 3.10(a).<br>
<br>
This OSI-approved attribution provision is quite broad. It can apply
to *every* executable program that results from the Initial Work or any
Subsequent Work, regardless of whether such work is distributed or
not. In addition, it can be applied to a program that is dependent
upon the Initial or Subsequent Work. Finally, it necessarily complies
with OSD section 10, because the APL was approved in 2005, after
section 10 was added to the OSD in 2002.<br>
<br>
I bring this up because I've seen a lot of discussion / debate on this
mailing list about which flavor(s) of attribution should be considered
OSD-compliant, and I think the APL is a useful point of common
reference and can help light the way. To ignore the APL when deciding
whether to approve any "attribution" license would risk muddying the
water even further, IMHO. What's that Bob Marley line? "If you don't
know your past, you don't know your future?" <br>
<br>
Tim<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
____________________________________________________
Timothy McIntyre // Corporate Counsel
Terracotta // Open Source Clustering for Java
web: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.terracotta.org">www.terracotta.org</a>
tel: 415.738.4014
fax: 415.738.4099
This email incorporates Terracotta's confidentiality policy, which is online at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.terracottatech.com/emailconfidentiality.shtml">http://www.terracottatech.com/emailconfidentiality.shtml</a>
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