[License-review] Legacy Approval, Licnese of Jam

[McCoy Smith]

Given that this license does not grant the right to modify (or in US law
parlance, make derivative works), I wonder if it fails OSD 3. I think it
does, although perhaps it impliedly grants a modification right by saying
that "modifications" must be marked even though it doesn't grant the right
to make modifications?
There are other issues with this one (patent rights, which I think recently
OSI likes to see something like an express license) and the effectiveness of
the warranty disclaimer, but if it fails the OSD, it is not approvable.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: License-review <license-review-bounces at lists.opensource.org> On
> Behalf Of Jack Hill
> Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2021 2:34 PM
> To: license-review at lists.opensource.org
> Subject: [License-review] Legacy Approval, Licnese of Jam
> 
> As a licensee of Jam, I'm asking for legacy approval of the following
> terms:
> 
> """
> License is hereby granted to use this software and distribute it freely,
as long
> as this copyright notice is retained and modifications are clearly marked.
> 
> ALL WARRANTIES ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED.
> """
> 
> This is the license used by Jam [0] and its forks [1][2][3] (n.b. the
boost
> version is also distributed under the Boost license). Outside of Boost, I
don't
> believe this build tool is widely used. However, it is needed to build at
least
> one important open source package: the Argyll Color Management System.
> Argyll is the only open source package that I know of that can generate
color
> calibration profiles, so it is critically important for the use of open
source
> software in fields where that is important.
> 
> I believe that the proliferation category for this license is
> Other/Miscellaneous.
> 
> In other discussions [4] I've had about this license, the problematic
points
> were what "distribute freely" meant, and how modifications could be
clearly
> marked. The Argyll fork of Jam marks modifications as follows:
> 
> """
> This if "Argyll-Jam", a simple derivative of the "FT-Jam" build tool,
based and
> 100% compatible with Jam 2.5. See http://www.freetype.org/jam/ for more
> details about FT-Jam.
> 
> This is the "FT-Jam" 2.5.2 release, with minor ArgyllCMS tweaks, and the
> ArgyllCMS V1.3.3 Jambase as the default rule set.
> 
> Note that you'll find the original Jam README in the file README.ORG """
> 
> [0] https://www.perforce.com/documentation/jam-documentation
> [1] https://www.freetype.org/jam/index.html
> [2] http://www.argyllcms.com/doc/Compiling.html
> [3]
> https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_76_0/tools/build/doc/html/index.html#b
> bv2.jam
> [4] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-04/msg00436.html
> 
> Best,
> Jack
> 
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