[License-review] Submission for review of Mulan Public License，Version 2

[Wayne Thornton]

This is an interesting point that McCoy makes. Although admittedly not a lawyer myself, how can any international open source license be required to enumerate strictly US rights for approval by OSI? If a license is international in origin and nature, it most definitely should conform with the Berne formulation of copyright rights. Holding international licenses to a US copyright formulation would appear to me to be short-sighted and potentially problematic in the future. Although OSI is US-based, open source is a truly international affair. Would it not be best practice for OSI to require international open source licenses to conform to the Berne formulation as opposed to imposing potentially problematic US copyright formulations for approval of a license by OSI? 

-----Original Message-----
From: License-review <license-review-bounces at lists.opensource.org> On Behalf Of Pamela Chestek
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2025 10:02 AM
To: license-review at lists.opensource.org
Subject: Re: [License-review] Submission for review of Mulan Public License，Version 2


On 1/22/2025 7:57 AM, McCoy Smith wrote:
> If new licenses ought to include the full panoply of copyright rights, 
> and are to conform to international standards, shouldn't they instead 
> use the full Berne formulation of copyright rights rather than the US 
> formulation? In many cases they are articulated the same, or very 
> similarly, but in others there are distinct differences.

I think there's a difference between what is the better practice and what would be acceptable to be approved as an open source license. There are many approved licenses that enumerate US rights only.

Pam (in my personal capacity)

Pamela S. Chestek
Chestek Legal
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