[License-review] For Approval: libpng license, version 2.0

[Lawrence Rosen]

John Cowan wrote:

> When I looked at the Python license tangle, which was many years ago, I concluded that only the most recent license was actually applicable, and that the other licenses were inert but could not be removed because they themselves said they could not be, like so many DNA viruses -- they get copied when Python is but have no function at all.

 

That's an evocative example. Like the voluminous DNA that has been incorporated into human DNA over the eons, much of it is unused and harmless. It is baggage in every sperm cell. Don't worry about it. 

 

Copying even inert licenses and other notices into source code is a trivial burden on developers. Just do it wherever you distribute source code, probably somewhere on your website, and commit it to our common history....

 

However, I believe that nothing in the OSD or a license requires that the DNA also appear in a specific part of executable code or on an end-user screen. That would be a virus!

 

/Larry

 

 

From: License-review <license-review-bounces at lists.opensource.org> On Behalf Of John Cowan
Sent: Monday, November 5, 2018 10:27 AM
To: License submissions for OSI review <license-review at lists.opensource.org>
Cc: henrik.ingo at avoinelama.fi
Subject: Re: [License-review] For Approval: libpng license, version 2.0

 

 

On Mon, Nov 5, 2018 at 12:12 PM Smith, McCoy <mccoy.smith at intel.com <mailto:mccoy.smith at intel.com> > wrote:

 

I found this submission very confusing, in part because it seems to be a series of licenses and/or disclaimers sequentially superimposed on other licenses or disclaimers, each of which appears to indicate that it applies to different versions of a particular piece of software.

 

When I looked at the Python license tangle, which was many years ago, I concluded that only the most recent license was actually applicable, and that the other licenses were inert but could not be removed because they themselves said they could not be, like so many DNA viruses -- they get copied when Python is but have no function at all.

 

-- 

John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org <mailto:cowan at ccil.org> 

You let them out again, Old Man Willow!

What you be a-thinking of?  You should not be waking!

Eat earth!  Dig deep!  Drink water!  Go to sleep!

Bombadil is talking.

 

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