[License-review] Approval request for GG License 1.0

Tue Dec 30 18:39:46 UTC 2014

submission type: For Approval
license name: GG License 1.0 (GG1).

Good morning,
My name is Valentino Giudice and I am an Italian student of Computer
Science.
I would like the GG License 1.0 (GG1) to be approved.

*Plaintext copy of the license*
Here the full text of the license:

Preamble
This work is provided under GG License 1.0 (GG1).
By owning, using, modifying or distributing a copy of this work or any its
derivative work you are accepting this license.
This license allows you to modify and distribute the work (both free and
for a fee), under the terms stated below.

1) Definitions:
a) "This license": This version of the GG License 1.0
b) "This work": This work, released under the terms of this license. If a
software is released under this license, then this license applies to its
source code (the binary version shall be considered a derivative work). If
a part of a software is released under this license, then this license
applies to its source code (the binary version shall be considered a
derivative work)
c) "Derivative work": Any work obtained by applying "transformation
processes", either manual or automatic, to this work. Those transformation
processes includes, but are not limited to, editing, adaptations,
obfuscations, compiling, joining or aggregation with other works, inclusion
in other works and removing components that are parts of this work. Any
work obtained by applying transformation processes to a derivative work
shall be considered a derivative work itself
d) "Distribute": Distributing a work means making copies of it available
for third parties (regardless the used medium)
e) "You": Any person (or group of people), entity, association or company
that has a copy of this work (or a derivative work)
f) "Author" (or "Author of this work"): Anyone who retains the copyright of
this work (the author could be a single person, a group of people, an
agency or any other kind of entity).

2) Grants:
The author of this work allows you to do the activities reported below, as
long as you respect this license, especially the section 3 ("Obligations
and restrictions"):
a) Using this work: You are allowed to use this work
b) Distributing this work: You can distribute copies of this work both for
free and for a fee
c) Modifying this work: You can use this work to make derivative works and
distribute them, both for free and for a fee.
As explained in the section 4 ("Termination"), any violation of this
license make you loose all the rights listed above.

3) Obligations and restrictions
a) Attribution (or "Citation"): If you distribute this work or any
derivative work you must provide, with the distributed work, any supplied
piece of information among the following ones: the author's name (or
pseudonym, if applicable), copyright notice of the author on this work, the
title of this work and, if you are distributing a derived work, information
about how to obtain this work. You must also make clear this work is
released under this license, providing a full copy of this text or via a
hyperlink (or URI). These pieces of information must be clearly visible and
easily accessible even for those whose computer science skills are just the
ones needed to a basic use of the distributed work. Therefore, if the
distributed work is available in the binary form, attribution in the source
code is not enough
b) Removing (or changing) the attribution: If required by the author of
this work, you must remove the information the section 3.a ("Attribution")
require you to provide. Note that this removal is not allowed if not
expressly required or approved by the author of this work. Also, if
required by the author, you must replace, in the attribution, the name of
the author with a pseudonym or vice versa.
c) Stating changes: If you distribute a derivative work, it must be clear
(and, so, expressly specified) that it is a derivative work and not the
original work.

4) Termination:
If you do not respect the terms of this license, you loose any right it
provides to you.
You must therefore delete any copy of this work and on any derivative work
you have.
As long as you respect this license, the author of this work cannot revoke
the rights this license provides you.

5) Exceptions:
This license is just an agreement between you and the author of this work.
By means of this license, the author allows you to use this work under the
terms of this license. See the section 2 ("Grants").
This work could be provided also under other licenses, more or less
restrictive.
The author of this work could (upon request or not) allow a use of this
work contrary to this license, especially to the section 3 ("Obligations
and restrictions"). Such a permission could be provided only to a few
individuals and shall be considered an exception.
Also, this license states the following exceptions:
a) The section 1.c ("derivative work") establishes that the result of a
compilation process shall be considered a derivative work and the section
3.c establishes that when you distribute a derivative work, you must
specify that it is a derivative work and not this work. This is not
required if the derivative work has been made only by compiling this work
(and without any other transformation process). See the section 1.b ("This
work").
b) Any removal of parts of the attribution (or of the full attribution)
required by the section 3.b ("Removing or changing the attribution") shall
not be considered a violation of the section 3.a ("Attribution").
Other exceptions (for instance, in some countries, fair use) might be
determined by the law. See the section 6.

6) Disclaimers and additional notes:
THIS WORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.
USING THIS WORK IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AND IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.
IF THERE IS ANY CONFLICT BETWEEN THIS LICENSE AND THE LAW, THEN THE LAW
PREVAILS.

*Supporting data*
The GG License 1.0 is a non-copyleft free license.
It is inspired to the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported, which,
unfortunately, is not available for software (quote from the Creative
Commons website: "We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for
software").
The GG1 license is intended to bring the principles of the CC-BY 3.0
license in the world of software.

The most similar license is, of course, the Creative Commons Attribution
license itself (version 3.0), but it is not an OSI license.
The most similar OSI-approved license is probably the MIT license.
The GG license is different because it requires a different type of
attribution (and it provides more information about it).
Also, its clauses are more precise.
The Fair License is also similar to the GG1 license, but it is much less
clear about what one is allowed to do with the licensed work.
The GNU Lesser General Public License shall also be compared to GG1. They
are quite similar and LGPL is not a copyleft license. But the GG license
requires a stronger type of attribution. Also, it is much shorter and easy
to read for any user.
This is true both for LGPL-2.1 and LGPL-3.0.

Unfortunately, since I am not a lawyer, no legal analysis is available

I personally think that the best category for GG License 1.0 is
"Other/Miscellaneous licenses".
Anyway, of course, if You do not want to insert it in this category, then
just chose any other one You want.

*Earlier public discussions*
Unluckily, there is no public discussion about this license (as far as I
know).

I do not know whether I have been able to present this license well enough
or not, but I also trust that You will judge it basing on Your strict and
objective criteria and not on this e-mail.

I am looking forward to reading from You.
Best Regards,
*Valentino Giudice*
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