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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Unless the OSI has
registered the terms “open source” as a protected trademark
requiring such approval, the only thing protected is the OSI compliance logo
and the declaration of compliance or approval by OSI. I don’t think that “open
source” is protected, just because OSI has initiated a process to verify
these assertions, simply because the terms pre-existed and was used long before
OSI started its campaign. We’ve seen the terms “open source”
(with or without hyphen, with or without capitals) used since the early time of
BSD and MIT or FSF licences, or even in sources donated to the “public
domain”.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>These past claims remain
valid and OSI cannot become the exclusive owner of these terms. What makes the
OSI approval important is the fact that the approval is recognized by other
companies or sites (like SourceFourge) as offering a good protection for those
sites against possible copyright infringement claims (so the policy of these
third-party sites includes some requirement such as the OSI approval for ensuring
the compatibility of the hosted projects using these licences).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>De :</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> Chris Travers
[mailto:chris.travers@gmail.com] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Envoyé :</span></b> lundi 1 octobre 2007
23:24<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>À :</span></b> License Discuss<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Objet :</span></b> Re: Question on OSI
position on BSD/MIT licenses</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>So am I right then that the OSI's position is that every possible
wording of the MIT, BSD, and similar licenses do not need to be approved for
people to claim that a project is Open Source? I.e. that meeting the OSD
is what is important, not having the specific wording approved? <br>
<br>
Best Wishes,<br>
Chris Travers<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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