[License-review] resolving ambiguities in OSD [was Re: For Approval: License Zero Reciprocal Public License]

[John Cowan]

On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 11:33 PM, Luis Villa <luis at lu.is> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 6:20 PM Josh berkus <josh at postgresql.org> wrote:
>
>> On 10/24/2017 06:13 PM, Bruce Perens wrote:
>> >
>> > With regard to *simple users,* those who make use of the Open Source
>> > software and do not modify or redistribute it, there should be as close
>> > to *no legal load* as possible. [...]
>
>  *simple users should not ever have to read the license.*
>>
>
I also read "simple user" as someone executing the code rather than reusing
it to make new code; that is, exercising freedom 0.  I am a simple user of
gcc; I don't modify it even for my own internal purposes, I don't give
copies of it to anyone, and I certainly don't offer a compilation service
over the network. I think the vast majority of gcc users are in this
position.


> It would also leave open the question of why the AGPL gets to circumvent
>> that requirement.
>>
>
The AGPL does not circumvent freedom 0 if the GPL does not, because its
only additional provision (clause 13) imposes obligations only on those who
modify the licensed software.


> And GPL v2 and v3, and EUPL, and I'm sure others. (The only reason one can
> even vaguely pretend v2 meets a "should not ever have to read the license"
> criteria is because of decades of usage.)
>

How does the GPL whether v2 or v3 infringe freedom 0?  I don't see it.
Indeed, GPL v3 clause 9 explicitly protects freedom-0-only users by saying
"You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run a
copy of the Program", and GPL v2 clause 5 implicitly does the same with
"You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed
it", then limiting this to those who neither modify nor distribute.

-- 
John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
Original line from The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold:
"Only on Barrayar would pulling a loaded needler start a stampede toward
one."
English-to-Russian-to-English mangling thereof: "Only on Barrayar you risk
to
lose support instead of finding it when you threat with the charged weapon."
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