For Approval: Anonymous Hero Public License

[Wilson, Andrew]

Julien Cayzac wrote:
> Rationale:
> This license is meant for publishing source code in a way that allows
> anybody to modify, re-license, or build upon, the licensed work but
> explicitly forbids to cite its original author.
> It is not redundant with any license I am aware of, and clearly allows
> any source code author to control how his/her name is used on the
> Internet.
> 
> License URI:
> http://ahpl.julien-cayzac.com/anonymous-hero-public-license.txt

The obvious problem with a self-destructing license is that it
discriminates against downstream recipients of the code.  Once the
original copyright notice has been stripped, per requirements
for redistribution, downstream recipients
have no documentation of any rights to the code nor of its provenance.

May I suggest a better approach would be to set up a non-profit
organization ("anonymous-heros.org") which could accept assignment
of copyright from publicity-averse would-be open source authors.
The .org could then republish submissions under their copyright
and under an existing OSI-approved permissive license such as
BSD or AFL.

Andy Wilson
Intel open source technology center