[License-review] For Approval: Convertible Free Software License, Version 1.4 (C-FSL v1.4)

[Elmar Stellnberger]

Full Name: Convertible Free Software License Version 1.4
Short Identifier: C-FSL v1.4
URL1: https://www.elstel.org/license/C-FSL-v1.4.pdf
URL2: https://www.elstel.org/license/C-FSL-v1.4.txt

Rationale and Distinguish:
While the BSD license allows the whole world to re-license and while 
re-licensing is virtually impossible with GPL since every contributor 
would need to consent the C-FSL license goes a practical intermediate 
way restricting the right to re-license to a group called the original 
authors. That way open source developers are not excluded from making 
business with others who want to base a proprietary product on the given 
piece of open source software.

Proliferation Category & Legal Review:
Other/Miscellaneous
The license has now been fully reworked by a lawyer. Version 1.4 
features easier and more user friendly forking - like the previous draft 
(v1.3). New in Version 1.4 is that you do not need to ship your changes 
proactively in case of buggy dead end code or for very small changes and 
that original authors are certain to be upheld also if a product under 
C-FSL becomes incorporated into a bigger product.

list of software which uses C-FSL v1.1.:
qcoan: https://www.elstel.org/coan
xchroot, confinedrv, bundsteg, debcheckroot, dbschemacmd: also found at 
www.elstel.org

P.S.: Please change the approval process to approve C-FSL license 
version 1.4 instead of the previous draft with version 1.3.
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CONVERTIBLE FREE SOFTWARE LICENCE
Version 1.4, 21.01.2019

Copyright © 2019 Elmar Stellnberger. <https://www.elstel.org/license>
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this licence document, but changing it is not allowed.

By continuing to use the Works or Derivative Works under this Licence, You are agreeing to this version and any future versions of this Licence. 


TERMS AND CONDITIONS 


1. DEFINITIONS

“Licence” shall mean the Convertible Free Software Licence (C-FSL).

"You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or legal entity exercising permissions granted by this Licence.

"Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications, including but not limited to software source code, documentation source, and configuration files.

"Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical transformation or translation of a Source form, including but not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation, and conversions to other media types.

"Work(s)" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or Object form, made available under the Licence, as indicated by a copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work.

To “modify” a work means to copy from or adapt all or part of the work in a fashion requiring copyright permission, other than the making of an exact copy. 

"Derivative Work(s)" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object form, that is based on, or derived from, the Work and for which the editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. 

"Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is published by the copyright owner or by an individual or legal entity authorized to submit on behalf of the copyright owner. 

"Contributor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by the copyright owner that is granting the Licence for the Work consisting of the Contribution.

“Marker” shall mean the unique identifier of the Derivative Work which distinguishes it from its previous derivation. The Marker consists of at least two letters and should reflect the name of the Contributor.

“Original Authors” shall mean the original Contributors of the Work as a group.

“Original Branch” shall mean the main branch of the Work which a Fork is based on.

“Kernel” shall refer to the core of an operating system. 

“Libraries” shall mean the separate components which are referenced by the Work which can be used independently with or without inclusion of the Work. 

“Fork” shall mean where a third party takes a copy of source code from the Work and independently develops it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software.


2. GRANT OF COPYRIGHT LICENCE

2.1 Subject to the terms and conditions of this Licence, You are granted a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright licence to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.

2.2	You hereby agree that any published Derived Work or Fork shall reference the email address and web page of the author of the base product and that such information shall be displayed prominently on any licence and / or associated information or help page for the purposes of enabling the download of the base product and in order for users to be able to contact the author of the base product.


3. GRANT OF PATENT LICENCE

3.1 Subject to the terms and conditions of this Licence, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent licence to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work, where such licence applies only to those patent claims licensable by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s) with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. 

3.2 If You institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a suit) alleging that the Work or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licences granted to You under this Licence for that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.


4. ANTI-CIRCUMVENTION LAW

4.1 No Work shall be deemed part of an effective technological measure under any applicable law fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO copyright treaty adopted on 20 December 1996, or similar laws prohibiting or restricting circumvention of such measures.

4.2 When you reproduce and distribute Works, you waive any legal power to forbid circumvention of technological measures to the extent such circumvention is effected by exercising rights under this Licence with respect to the covered work, and you disclaim any intention to limit operation or modification of the work as a means of enforcing, against the work's users, your or third parties' legal rights to forbid circumvention of technological measures.


5. REDISTRIBUTION

5.1 You may reproduce and distribute copies of the Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You meet the following conditions:

a) You must release any Work or Derivative Works under this Licence to the public at no cost and without any undue hindrance on obtaining the Work. For the avoidance of doubt, requesting that users register before they are able to use the Work or other similar action, shall be considered an undue hinderance and shall therefore not be permitted as per the provisions of this Clause. 
b) You must display prominent notices on any Derivative Works stating that the Work was amended by you along with your contact details including your email address, and the date on which You made the relevant modifications; 
c) You may issue an ‘automatic derivation process’ on the Source code to produce the Object code;
d) You must provide sufficient open source data, tools and utilities to enable the compilation of a functionally equivalent Object code at no cost;
e) You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices from the Source form of the Work, excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of the Derivative Works; and
f) You must make available to the public any Derivative Work or changes to the Work within one month from their creation. 

5.2 Any component, add-on, plug-in, or additional product relating to the execution of the Derivative Work must be licensed under an approved licence from opensource.org. This shall not include proprietary Libraries and Kernel modules. You shall provide functionally equivalent open source Libraries to allow the execution of the Work without any proprietary libraries. 

5.3 Any changes to the Work need to be listed in a separate changelog file or in the header of the changed file.

5.4 Changes which do not require a single commit or which result in unusable code do not need to be published. This includes, but without limitation to, code made non-functional due to bugs and code with no further prospects of continued work.

5.5 You must give your changed version a clear Marker and distribute the Work with “(upstream version name) – (upstream version) – (Your marker) – (optional version number)”. You may distribute verbatim copies of the published Source and Object code as you receive it with or without Your Marker.


6. ORIGINAL AUTHORS

6.1 The Original Authors of the Work shall be listed at the beginning of the changelog file or the header of file changes of Your Derivate Work. 

6.2 You may re-licence your Derivative Work separately under any Licence you desire, without a Marker and only with the prior written consent of the Original Authors. In such event, new Contributors may be added to the Original Authors’ group.


7. FORK

7.1 You may create a Fork of an Original Branch under this Licence with a different name on the condition that you provide a clear indication that the Fork is based on the Original Branch.

7.2 If Your Fork uses a graphical user interface (“GUI”), this Licence must be referenced in its entirety within the GUI, or, where your programme does not have a GUI, the Licence must be cited through a plain text copy alongside the distributed Work. The Original Branch must be referenced and linked via the GUI.

7.3 If Your Fork is released with a comprehensive manual or help page, the Original Branch must be referenced and linked. 

7.4 If Your Fork is released with a comprehensive manual or help page, the Licence must be referenced and linked. 

7.5 If the Fork comprises 65% or more code that is different to that of the Original Branch, then new Original Authors may be appointed. This clause 7.5 shall be applied to each individual component.

7.6	Notwithstanding the provisions in 7.5 above, new original authors may be appointed with the written consent of the Original Authors.

7.7 If a Work under this License comprises several components which can each be compiled or used independently, the components may be considered independent Works. In such event, the component name shall be included in the file header and identified as an independent Work under C-FSL. 

7.8 If a CFSL-licensed Work is incorporated into another program or application, and the Work has little association with or has distinct functionality from the rest of the program, the Work shall remain an independent component. 


8. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, the Contributors provide the Work on an "as is" basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of title, non-infringement, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. You are solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this Licence.


9. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort, including negligence, contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts, or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a result of this Licence or out of the use or inability to use the Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor has been advised of the possibility of such damages.


10. APPLICABLE LAW 

Any dispute arising from this Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Austria or the country from which the Work first originates. 


11. SEVERANCE 

If any part of these terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining terms will continue in full force and effect.