Revised License Committee Report for March 2009

Dag-Erling Smørgrav des at des.no
Wed Mar 18 14:58:09 UTC 2009


wtfpl user <wtfpl.user at googlemail.com> writes:
> Please approve the license.

It's not a license.

I'm surprised nobody else has commented on this, but the WTFPL says
absolutely *nothing* about software or a document or image or anything
else than the WTFPL itself.  It explicitly allows the recipient of a
copy of the WTFPL to redistribute verbatim copies of the WTFPL, and
there is ambiguous wording about distributing modified copies of the
WTFPL.

There is also something about "terms and conditions for copying,
distribution and modification", although there is only one term,
numbered 0.  There is no mention of what that term actually applies to,
and from the context, I would guess that it applies only to the WTFPL
itself.

The author claims that his motivation for writing the WTFPL was to solve
problem of "unacceptable obnoxious clauses" in GPL- and BSD-style
licenses, but that problem has already been solved.  The "Fair License"
was submitted for OSI approval in January 2004, almost five years before
the WTFPL.  It is even shorter than the WTFPL, and far more readable.

DES
-- 
Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des at des.no



More information about the License-review mailing list