[License-review] For Legacy Approval: TOPPERS License

[Richard Fontana]

Hi Yutaka,

Really sorry I just didn't notice this before, but I see something in
the TOPPERS license I think may be problematic, in condition (4):

"The above copyright holders and the TOPPERS Project are exempt from
responsibility for any type of damage directly or indirectly caused
from the use of this software and are indemnified by any users or end
users of this software from any and all causes of action whatsoever."

Specifically, the second half of that sentence, which is unclear to
me. If this is somehow purporting to create an obligation on "any
users or end users" to indemnify upstream "from any and all causes of
action whatsoever" ... I wouldn't expect to see something so broad in
an open source license, even though admittedly I can't give you a
strict OSD-based argument for that. We see certain kinds of limited
indemnification provisions in the MPL, Apache License 2.0, and EPL,
but I'm not aware of anything as broad as this in a license recognized
as open source or free software(if I'm right in reading it as the same
sort of provision). I'm not even really sure how to read this --
indemnified by any users from any and all causes of action from
... whom? Other users having nothing to do with the indemnifying set
of users?

You said that the license was authored by lawyers in Japan. Does the
license exist in an official Japanese language form? I'm just
wondering whether the problem here might be the use of the term
"indemnified" and (I am supposing) whatever Japanese legal term that
may have been meant to map to.

Richard




On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 08:29:15AM -0700, Yutaka MATSUBARA wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> 
> Same here. BTW, when is the next board meeting?
> 
> As discussed in the another thread, KANBAN of Taiga.io looks so greatly
> useful for persons involved in the license review process to visualize the
> status of each license submitted to this mailing list.
> 
> Thank you in advance.
> Yutaka
> 
> On 8/20/15 06:35, Richard Fontana wrote:
> >On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 09:58:33PM -0700, Yutaka MATSUBARA wrote:
> >>Hello all,
> >>
> >>Thank you for the comments and advices about the TOPPERS license.
> >>
> >>According to the licence review process, step 2 and 3 would be performed
> >>after step 1. The status of the approve process for the TOPPERS license is
> >>uncertain for me now. So could someone let me know it?
> >
> >Hi Yutaka,
> >
> >I believe discussion of the TOPPERS license on license-review is now
> >basically exhausted. I'll take on the next step of summarizing and
> >recommending for the board, with a view to having a board vote by the
> >next board meeting.
> >
> >Richard
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>
> >>What Will Happen
> >>
> >>1. The License Review community will discuss on the mailing list for at
> >>least 30 days. The submitter should participate in this discussion by
> >>replying to any questions asked or claims made about the license.
> >>
> >>2. The License Review Chair will summarize and present recommendations to
> >>OSI Board (and copy the list).
> >>
> >>3. The OSI Board will make the final decision, or requests for additional
> >>information, at the next monthly meeting.
> >>
> >>4. The License Review Chair will report back to the List.
> >>If Approved, the OSI Website will be updated as appropriate.
> >>
> >>Thanks,
> >>Yutaka
> >>
> >>On 8/4/15 16:27, Yutaka MATSUBARA wrote:
> >>>Hi Josh,
> >>>
> >>>Thank you for stating your position.
> >>>
> >>>Thanks,
> >>>Yutaka
> >>>
> >>>On 8/4/15 10:57, Josh Berkus wrote:
> >>>>On 08/03/2015 09:20 PM, Yutaka MATSUBARA wrote:
> >>>>>Hello all,
> >>>>>
> >>>>>Are there any concerns in this topic?
> >>>>>I hope that voting to approve the TOPPERS License would be carried out
> >>>>>sometime soon.
> >>>>
> >>>>As I've said before, I am +1 to approve as a legacy license.
> >>>>
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