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<p>if you want this approved to add to the OSI list, the proper
e-mail list is license-approval, not license-discuss. Some people
use license-discuss as a place to get an initial sense of whether
a license might get approved, so if you're doing that here, then
it's OK.</p>
<p>I think at a minimum, you'd need to (in addition to the below):</p>
<p>1. Indicate that you've contacted the license steward (since you
are not the steward) and indicate whether they approve or
disapprove of submission of this license for approval;</p>
<p>2. Give a little bit better description of why changes to MIT
were made in this license, and why, and what their effect would be
on the license. The FAQs say both "The changes done to the license
that make it uniquely curl were tiny and well-intended, but the
reasons for them have been forgotten and we strongly discourage
others from doing the same thing" and "This license puts the
restrictions we want on curl/libcurl and it does not spread to
other programs or libraries that use it." I think it would be
helpful to understand why curl believes the differences between
curl and MIT are so important they cannot be changed, but also are
tiny and forgotten.</p>
<p>FWIW, attached is a compare I did between MIT and curl. To my
mind, this looks like an effort to take MIT and "BSD" it by making
the license grants more similar to the way they are expressed in
BSD, and also to add the non-endorsement clause of BSD-3. To my
mind, this is just a reworded version of BSD-3. Whether or not it
is better than BSD-3 or MIT is an interesting question (I'd argue
it's a worse version of MIT because it omits some of the license
grants, most notably "sell" and "sublicense" It seems fairly
equivalent, albeit somewhat sorter, version of BSD. Although the
one change is the qualification of "third party rights" in the
disclaimer of non-infringement warranties. I don't think that's
practically substantive, but I think some explanation of why
that's in there would be merited.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/3/2026 3:38 AM, Christoph Röth via
License-discuss wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:3e8d7c0f-7943-491e-a327-9e28be8b7b84@web.de">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">Dear OSI License
Discussion Forum,</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">I would like the
curl license to be added. Th<code class="western"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">e license has
been around for quite some time, so it can be classified
as a legacy license. The license is available at SPDX.
Please find the required information attached.</span></font></font></code></p>
<br>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">**\u2022
<font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">Submit a copy of the license as an
attachment in simple text format.**</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION NOTICE</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">Copyright (c) 1996 - 2015, Daniel
Stenberg, <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:daniel@haxx.se" moz-do-not-send="true"><daniel@haxx.se></a>.
<br>
All rights reserved. </font></font> </p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">Permission to use, copy, modify, and
distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee
is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
and this permission notice appear in all copies.</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS",
WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF
THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">Except as contained in this notice,
the name of a copyright holder shall not be used in
advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
dealings in this Software without prior written
authorization of the copyright holder.</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">**\u2022 <font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">Affirmatively </span></font></font><strong><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">state that the
license complies</span></font></font></strong><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB"> with the Open
Source Definition, including specifically affirming it
meets OSD 3, 5, 6 and 9.</span></font></font>**</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">I can confirm that the license
complies with the Open Source Definition.</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">3. Derived Works: Yes</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">5. No Discrimination Against Persons
or Groups: Yes</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">6. No Discrimination Against Fields
of Endeavor: Yes</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">9. License Must Not Restrict Other
Software: Yes</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">**\u2022 <font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">Identify what
projects are </span></font></font><strong><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">already using</span></font></font></strong><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB"> the license.</span></font></font>**</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">The curl project itself.</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">**\u2022 <font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">Provide the
identity and contact details of the </span></font></font><strong><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">license steward</span></font></font></strong><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">, if known, and
of the submitter. The OSI will try to get in touch with
the license steward if the license submitter is not the
steward.</span></font></font>**</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">Daniel Stenberg,
<<a href="mailto:daniel@haxx.se"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">daniel@haxx.se</a>></span></font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">**\u2022
<font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">Provide any additional information
that the submitter believes would be helpful for license
review. For example, approval of the license by Debian, the
FSF or the Fedora Project would be relevant to the review
process.</font></font>**</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">The website contains this text with
detailed information about the license, <a
href="https://curl.se/docs/faq.html#license"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">https://curl.se/docs/faq.html#license</a></font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">What license does curl use exactly?</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">curl is released under an MIT
derivative license. It is similar but not identical to the
MIT license.</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">The difference is considered big
enough to make SPDX list it under its own identifier: curl.</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">The changes done to the license that
make it uniquely curl were tiny and well-intended, but the
reasons for them have been forgotten and we strongly
discourage others from doing the same thing.</font></font></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">**\u2022 <font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">Provide a </span></font></font><strong><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">unique name</span></font></font></strong><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB"> for the license,
preferably including the version number.</span></font></font>**</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">Full name: </span></font></font><code
class="western"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">curl
License </span></font></font></code><code
class="western"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">(according
to SPDX)</span></font></font></code></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">Short identifier:
</span></font></font><code class="western"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">curl </span></font></font></code><code
class="western"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">(according
to SPDX)</span></font></font></code></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">**\u2022
<font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="3"
style="font-size: 12pt">If any exist, provide the unique
identifier by other projects, like SPDX or ScanCode.</font></font>**</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><a
href="https://spdx.org/licenses/curl.html"
moz-do-not-send="true"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-GB">https://spdx.org/licenses/curl.html</span></font></font></a></p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">Best
regards</p>
<p lang="en-GB" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in">Christoph</p>
<br>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">_______________________________________________
The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Official statements by the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.
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</pre>
</blockquote>
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