[License-review] For Approval: License Zero Reciprocal Public License

[Simon Phipps]

On 24 Oct 2017 00:08, "Kyle Mitchell" <kyle at kemitchell.com> wrote:

On 2017-10-23 23:10, Simon Phipps wrote:
> I cannot envisage any circumstances where limiting mere use (i.e. without
> distribution or other making available) would be acceptable in an open
> source/free software license, whether the code was unchanged or had been
> improved.

We've reached the core question again.


Glad to be of service.


As succinctly as I can:

1. Why are net-freedom-enhancing conditions on distribution
   permitted, but net-freedom-enhancing conditions on use
   prohibited?

2. What's the basis in OSD for that distinction?  Or does it
   come from an unarticulated policy concern?

3. What's the difference between "distribution" and "use",
   anyway?  (We're using "distribution" here in a loose
   sense, not precisely as employed in the Copyright Act.)

4. Industry developments---ASP, PaaS---are making that
   distinction less and less relevant.  Doesn't confining
   copyleft to distribution-triggered conditions
   fundamentally hobble it as a technique for driving a good
   reciprocity bargain?  In other words, is AGPL the
   furthest copyleft can go?



All your questions seem to omit the context that the open source license
exists not as an independent intellectual exercise for copyright attorneys
but as a pragmatic matter of advocacy and implementation for software
freedom.

OSI does not approve licenses in isolation as an academic exercise but as a
matter of protecting and promoting open source software, development and
communities; championing software freedom in society through education,
collaboration, and infrastructure; and preventing abuse of the ideals and
ethos inherent to the open source movement. (taken from
https://opensource.org/)

A license could conceivably avoid disqualification under the OSD and yet
not be approved by the Board because it undermines OSI's larger role of
crystallising and stewarding the consensus of the larger community[1]. It's
unlikely extensive rules will be made to codify that reality.[2]

Best regards,

S.

My personal thoughts on those points:
[1] https://meshedinsights.com/2017/10/18/control-or-consensus/
[2]] https://meshedinsights.com/2017/02/09/governance-games/
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