[Fwd: Re: For Approval: The Azure License]

[Bruce Perens]

Kenneth Ballenegger wrote:
> The Azure License
>
> Copyright (c) {year} {copyright holders, including link}
>
> You (the licensee) are hereby
"Hereby" is a noise word. It means "by this document here", which is 
obvious. People use it because they've seen it used. It would not block 
acceptance of the license.
> You must give attribution to the copyright holder(s), by name and by 
> hyperlink, in the about box, credits document and/or documentation of 
> any derivative work using a substantial portion of this software.
Regarding the multiple copyright holder issue. You could include a space 
in the license where the name to be attributed and the hyperlink to be 
used can be filled in. But if this is something that every subsequent 
modifier adds to, it becomes burdensome to the licensee. If it can't be 
added to, it defeats the attribution purpose for subsequent modifiers.
> Question: is it possible to add text to the license that isn't 
> considered legal? I'd like to write an introduction paragraph that 
> explains the license and in particular the "meaningful" attribution 
> requirement in plain english. 
You can't keep a court from attempting to consider anything, including 
this discussion. Preamble text is widely used, but there is a general 
perception that it adds to ambiguity rather than resolving it.

    Bruce