[License-review] Request for a new license review

[McCoy Smith]

For what it is worth I ran the license through google translate and got 
the following translation from German into English:

Copyright (c) <year> <copyright holder>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to anyone who receives a 
copy of this software and the associated documentation files (the 
"Software") to deal in the Software without restriction, including 
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, Publish, 
distribute, sublicense and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit 
persons to whom the Software is made available to do so, subject to the 
following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice must appear in all 
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

[The above part is pretty much verbatim the MIT license]

THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS ARE LIABLE UNLIMITEDLY IN THE EVENT OF 
INTENTIONAL DETENTION [I think this is a bad translation of "intentional 
acts" or "malicious intent"], CLARIFIC MISTECTION [I think this is a bad 
translation of "fraud," or "fraudulent misrepresentation"], GROSS 
NEGLIGENCE, INJURY TO LIFE, LIFE OR HEALTH AND TO THE EXTENT THE 
LIABILITY CANNOT BE LIMITED OR EXCLUDED BY LAW. IN CASE OF NEGLIGENT 
VIOLATION OF AN OBLIGATION, THE FULFILLMENT OF WHICH IS ESSENTIAL FOR 
THE EXECUTION OF THE CONTRACT (CARDINAL OBLIGATION), THE AUTHORS OR 
COPYRIGHT HOLDER WILL BE LIABLE TO THE AMOUNT OF THE DAMAGES THAT ARE 
FORESEEABLE AND TYPICAL WHEN THE CONTRACT IS CONCLUDED.

BEYOND LIABILITY IS EXCLUDED. [I think this is a bad translation of "All 
other liability is excluded"]

THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY ALSO APPLIES TO THE LIABILITY OF 
EMPLOYEES, AGENTS AND BODIES OF THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS. [This 
appears to be an addition to MIT to ensure that there is no claim made 
against employees, etc. when the copyright holder is a corporation; I 
believe other open source licenses include such a disclaimer]


So I think this is a narrowing of the disclaimer of MIT, but not in a 
particularly egregious way and probably something consistent with the 
limitations one can put on a contract in Germany*

*I am not a German lawyer, my German is pretty rudimentary, but I have 
spoken to German lawyers in the past about how some of the open source 
licenses disclaim liability beyond what is allowed under German law, and 
this language seems to match with my recollection of what is allowed.


On 12/17/2024 1:27 PM, Josh Berkus wrote:
> On 12/17/24 08:54, Dirk Riehle wrote:
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> I saw that Pam asked for more information, so I guess this means the 
>> OSI is willing to accept non-English licenses (wasn't so sure).
>
> We have before.  The challenge, of course, is that the authoritative 
> license text needs sufficient review, which can be challenging in 
> non-English licenses.  Doubly so here, where the entire reason for the 
> license is because of a difference between American and German law; 
> we'll need opinions from more than one source that the difference is 
> both significant, and that this license cures the difference.
>