[License-review] Request for Approval : Modular Open-source Software License (MOSL)

[Hadrien Grasland]

On 09/24/2012 07:19 PM, John Cowan wrote:
> Hadrien Grasland scripsit:
>
>> I would like to submit a draft for a new software license. I have
>> decided to write it because I enjoy the idea of enforced source code
>> redistribution that is found in the GPL, but have had enough of the
>> GNU political agenda that the rest of that license brings with it.
> I think you should look at the Sleepycat License, which does pretty much
> what you want.  It would be easy to create a generic form of it.

Thanks for the tip ! I didn't check out the non-reusable licenses when I 
tried to look at the state of the art on opensource.org, and it sounds 
indeed like a license that has very similar goals as mine !

I see only three areas where my goals would conflict with those of this 
license :
-"DB software" vs software as a whole, as you mentioned earlier
-"nominal fee" for source code redistribution is too vague. These days, 
if you already have the resources required to distribute some piece of 
software, you can very well also maintain an http mirror for the source 
code at a negligible cost. Thus, I would be tempted to explicitly 
request the source code to be available at no additional cost.
-"The source code (...) must be freely redistributable under reasonable 
conditions" seems like a bit of a strong requirement, that could be 
incompatible with my previously stated goals of letting people sell 
software without allowing customers to take the source, make a trivial 
fork of it, and sell it at a lower price.

If I fixed these three issues, I would get the following terms :

"Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, 
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* Redistributions in any form must be accompanied by information on how 
to obtain complete source code for the software and any accompanying 
software that uses the software. The source code must either be included 
in the distribution or be available for no more than the cost of 
distribution. For an executable file, complete source code means the 
source code for all modules it contains. It does not include source code 
for modules or files that typically accompany the major components of 
the operating system on which the executable file runs.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED 
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, 
ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, 
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES 
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR 
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, 
STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN 
ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE 
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE."

What would you think of that ?

Hadrien