[repost] [j at uriah.heep.sax.de: For Approval: The beer-ware license]

[Russ Nelson]

Rick Moen writes:
 > They're entitled to their view, but I'd be loathe to let _them_ waste my
 > time, too.  (However, on their behalf, I'll say that at least _they_
 > aren't chewing up license-review's time on yet another gratuitously
 > different permissive licence.)

But Rick, it's NOT a permissive license.  It imposes a legal liability
on you.  Let's say that you have expressed your approval of the code
publicly ("Damn good code, there -- Rick Moen", comp.lang.c, January
11, 1998).  You are then obligated to buy Mr. Kamp a beer.  If you
then refuse to buy Mr. Kamp a beer, you lose your license to the code.
What if you buy him a beer that he doesn't like, and he refuses it?
Do you retain your license to the code?

No, I think it's clear that this license violates at least one of the
terms of the Open Source Definition.  For example, OSD#1 says "The
license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale".  Yet
what can the required purchase of a beer be, except an "other fee"?

Or how about OSD#5, discriminating against people with a religious
objection to strong drink?  How is a Mormon or Jehovah's
Witness to comply with this license without violating their religious
beliefs?

Or how about OSD#7, which says that you can't require someone to
execute an additional license?  If you could lose your license
strictly because you're unwilling to buy someone a beer (perhaps
you're a wine drinker), that seems to violate OSD#7.

Or OSD#10, "no provision of the license may be predicated on any
individual technology", yet beer-making is definitely a sophisticated
individual technology.  Without the technology of beer-making, a
society would be unable to comply with the BEER-WARE license, thus it
violates OSD#10.

But it's a nice short license, without any legalese.

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