[License-review] Request for Legacy Approval for the ICU License (as used by ICU 1.8.1 to ICU 57.1)

Fri Oct 20 18:34:49 UTC 2023

All,

I am pleased to report that at today's Board meeting the ICU License was 
approved as an OSI Approved License.

Pam

Pamela Chestek
Chair, License Committee
Open Source Initiative

On 10/18/2023 5:19 PM, Pamela Chestek wrote:
> All,
>
> Attached is the License Committee's recommendation to the Board on the 
> approval of the ICU license. I expect that we will be voting on this 
> license at the next Board meeting.
>
> Pamela S. Chestek
> Chair, License Committee
> Open Source Initiative
>
>
> On 8/16/2023 4:25 AM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I'm requesting that the ICU License be considered for Legacy approval 
>> as an OSI-approved license.
>>
>> Rationale:
>>
>> The ICU License is used by the extremely popular decNumber library 
>> (https://speleotrove.com/decimal/), which is dual-licensed (with the 
>> other option being GPL - 
>> https://github.com/gcc-mirror/gcc/tree/master/libdecnumber). The 
>> DPS8M simulator program is using the ICU License.  There are other 
>> major programs that redistribute ICU-licensed code such as Bloomberg 
>> COMDB2, IBM NetREXX, etc.
>>
>> Currently, Debian and Red Hat allow this license. Red Hat via Fedora 
>> considers it a variant of the MIT License.  See 
>> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:MIT#Modern_style_(ICU_Variant). 
>> Code under this license is distributed with Android 
>> (https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/deps/icu/+/refs/heads/main/LICENSE).
>>
>> ICU-licensed code is included in more than 2,500 projects on GitHub - 
>> see 
>> https://github.com/search?q=%22COPYRIGHT+AND+PERMISSION+NOTICE%22+%22ICU+License%22&type=code.
>>
>> The chances of decNumber being re-licensed by IBM is essentially zero 
>> (or I simply don't know who to talk to), which means that all code 
>> that derives from the ICU-licensed decNumber is not under an OSI 
>> approved license.  GitLab, for example, is not extending their free 
>> "Ultimate for Open Source Developers" for DPS8M and other projects 
>> due to the use of "non-OSI licensed" (ICU-licensed code) - they (and 
>> many others) will only allow explicitly listed OSI-approved licenses.
>>
>> The use of ICU Licensed code has come up as well in other projects, 
>> where there was confusion as to the status of the ICU-licensed code, 
>> and, wanting an OSI-approved license, decNumber code was replaced 
>> with other libraries, and finally reverted, a waste of time for all 
>> involved.
>>
>> Distinguish:
>>
>> The ICU License is very functionally similar to the MIT License.  Red 
>> Hat / Fedora considers the ICU license to be a variant of the MIT 
>> license.  It differs in four areas:
>>
>> 1) The grant of rights is explicit between Software and Documentation 
>> rather than both as a "work" (... provided that the above copyright 
>> notice(s) and this permission notice appear in all copies of the 
>> Software and that both the above copyright notice(s) and this 
>> permission notice appear in supporting documentation.)
>>
>> 2) It does not explicitly list "sublicense" as a right granted.
>>
>> 3) It disclaims all warranties, but the list of of these (including 
>> but not limited to) is slightly different (explicitly excluding only 
>> noninfringement of third party rights, etc).
>>
>> 4) It includes a non-publicity clause: "Except as contained in this 
>> notice, the name of a copyright holder shall not be used in 
>> advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings 
>> in this Software without prior written authorization of the copyright 
>> holder."
>>
>> Legal review:
>>
>> I am not aware of any published legal review of the specific text of 
>> this license.
>>
>> Full Text:
>>
>> Full text of the ICU License, with optional text bracketed:
>>
>> ```
>> COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION NOTICE
>>
>> Copyright (c) yyyy-yyyy copyright holder
>>
>> [All Rights Reserved.]
>>
>> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining 
>> a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 
>> "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including 
>> without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, 
>> distribute, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons 
>> to whom the Software is furnished to do so, provided that the above 
>> copyright notice(s) and this permission notice appear in all copies 
>> of the Software and that both the above copyright notice(s) and this 
>> permission notice appear in supporting documentation.
>>
>> THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, 
>> EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF 
>> MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT 
>> OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR 
>> HOLDERS INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, OR ANY 
>> SPECIAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER 
>> RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF 
>> CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN 
>> CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
>>
>> Except as contained in this notice, the name of a copyright holder 
>> shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, 
>> use or other dealings in this Software without prior written 
>> authorization of the copyright holder.
>> ```
>>
>> Recommended proliferation category:
>>
>> I would consider this license to be a Legacy license - "Licenses that 
>> are redundant with more popular licenses" and not to be recommended 
>> for new projects.
>>
>> -- 
>> Jeffrey H. Johnson
>> trnsz at pobox.com
>>
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