[License-review] For Legacy Approval: Zope Public License v2.1

[McCoy Smith]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: License-review <license-review-bounces at lists.opensource.org> On
> Behalf Of Richard Fontana
> Sent: Wednesday, April 7, 2021 6:56 AM
> To: License submissions for OSI review <license-
> review at lists.opensource.org>
> Subject: Re: [License-review] For Legacy Approval: Zope Public License
v2.1
> 
> This confused me in the past, but the OSI's view of "legacy approval"
> is given here:
> https://opensource.org/approval#legacy-approval
> 
> "Retroactive approval of historic/legacy licenses that have already been
> extensively used by an existing community, but have not previously been
> approved."
> 
> So "legacy" does not indicate "no longer in active use", but the
description
> uses "historic/legacy" without explaining what that means.
> I think there is something problematic here, both in that
"historic/legacy"
> gives the impression of "no longer actively used", and also in suggesting
that
> what's normal is to have approval of brand-new licenses (which I think is
an
> implied view of the OSI that has led to some problems such as the tendency
> for people to submit so-called "crayon" licenses and licenses that are
> otherwise foreseeably unlikely to be widely adopted).
> 
> Richard
> 
Right, "Legacy" isn't a license category, it's an (slightly different?
Truncated?) approval process for licenses that have been around a long time
and are generally considered acceptable.
There probably should be a different approval process for "upgraded versions
of licenses" which this is, particularly, as here, the changes are legally
non-substantive.