[License-review] Approval: OIN License (Open Innovation License)

Eric Schultz eric at wwahammy.com
Sat Dec 26 17:54:41 UTC 2020


Andrew,

Thanks for submitting this!

After a quick read I generally think what you've created is close to being
OSD-compliant. I am of the opinion that non-legally binding statements
about the author's goals can be part of a open source license. I personally
feel the wording could be tightened up a bit because I'm not sure it's as
clear as it could be.

But I'll leave it up to the lawyers to decide whether the sections you
intend to be legally non-binding statements actually are non-binding.

Eric

On Fri, Dec 25, 2020, 6:50 PM Andrew Nassief <kamalandrew55 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi, I would like to submit my license for approval. The LICENSE.md file
> can be seen on GitHub
> <https://github.com/StarkDrones/OIN/blob/main/LICENSE.md> with its
> available markdown. For sake of simplicity, here is the raw text of the
> license:
> *Released under the Open Innovation License*
>
> Copyright © // Insert information of license holder
>
> *Version 1, 10th November 2020*
>
> *Copyright © 2020 Stark Drones Corporation*
> *Copyright © 2020 Andrew Magdy Kamal*
>
> This project is licensed under the *Open Innovation License*. This means
> any code, file, diagrams, data format, or other innovation containing this
> license within it can be copied, modified, redistributed, published, or
> even used for commercial purposes within the context of this license.
> Any code, file, diagrams, data format, or other innovation containing this
> license is understood to be fully "AS IS", no claims are made in regards to
> safety, security, warranty, usability, or other form of merchantability and
> market-readiness. In no events are copyright holders, authors, or
> publishers are to be held liable for any claims, damage or results from
> usage of what have been licensed under this license.
>
> The context of this license includes: Keeping this original license text
> verbatim and permissive notice, as well as the copyright notice included in
> any redistribution of said project. Project is defined as what is using
> this license. For purposes of context, the copyright notice above version
> and year is meant to be modified for whomsoever publishes or releases "any
> code, file, diagrams, data format, or other innovation", so that they can
> include their information. After modifying, the comment saying "// Insert
> information of license holder" which starts with // can be removed. This
> current paragraph however, will remain in-tact.
>
> Anybody who releases software under the "Open Innovation License" agrees
> to at goodwill, build or release technology for the betterment of humanity
> not meant with the intention to harm a human being. They agree to a prima
> facie moral duty through consequential deontology to understand that
> technology should be within the concept of moral good or outcomes that are
> morally right and/or ethical. They agree at goodwill to promote the
> advancement of humanity and civilization as a whole. They agree to a sense
> of adventurement, edification, and the expansion of the human mind.
>
> Said agreement which is within the last paragraph prior to this sentence
> is meant to be taken as a general consensus, but not legally enforceable.
> Again for context, the last paragraph which starts with "Anybody" and ends
> with "human mind" minus quotations, is outside of the boundaries of being
> legally enforceable and within the duties of oneselve's actions. The rest
> of the license which includes the copyright notice and its context is
> within a legally enforceable context. For secondary context, the rest of
> the license refers to anything outside of that said paragraph.
>
> ____
>
> *Rationale:*
>
> I wanted to release this license for a variety of different reasons.
> Infact, I made many posts in regards to why this license is unique and
> valuable, and found many developers willing to adapt this license through
> small innovation challenges. The license was made on the basis of promoting
> a mission statement on ethical technology within the license as well as not
> being specific to only software i.e. files, diagrams, data format or any
> other innovation.
>
> We also wanted to make sure that the license is adaptable. Many open
> source licenses require you to put tons of header files for compliance. We
> wanted to make a license that just requires you to contain the license file
> in your directory. While many other open source licenses also do that or
> follow in similar footsteps, we weren't able to find one that met all these
> unique qualities.
>
> Currently, a big inspiration for this license was the idea of promoting
> free and open software as well as a mission statement on ethical
> technologies. We found that many of the big tech companies that are hailed
> as heroes of open source or doing open source initiatives, built
> technologies that are harmful to human activity. A technically non-legally
> enforceable mission statement within an enforceable open source license was
> the way to go. We also made sure to go out of our way to promote the ideals
> of open source and free and redistributive software.
>
> *Distinguish:*
>
> I looked at a variety of different open source licenses. The standard
> being MIT, then BSD+Patent, ZLib, CDDL, CPAL, CPL, CAL, BSL, and the AFL
> license. I feel like MIT, ZLIB, and the Boost licenses focus on
> redistribution and code. Those are the standards. The open patent licenses
> and other licenses focus on derived original work. However, none of them
> tried going to the same extent I wanted in terms of being specific in
> regards to data formats or general consensus and mission. I believe this is
> an important thing to take into account.
>
> *Legal review:*
>
> Currently I have submitted this to SPDX as well for review through their
> GitHub/Website. However, the review time to get approval and receive SPDX
> identifiers can be many months. I submitted in November and decided to
> submit to OSI while I wait. As for reviewing the context of language myself
> and actual legal review, I have thought out reviews through my own legal
> council and self judgement as a researcher familiar with these types of
> languages.
>
> *Proliferation category:*
>
> I don't necessarily need to be in a Proliferation category as of now, as
> many of the licenses on your site are not in a category. However, I would
> eventually want to get into the *Licenses that are popular and widely
> used or with strong communities *category.
>
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