[License-review] Submission of Orivex Syscall Note License (OSN-1.0) for OSI Approval - Revised Submission (Kartik Pawar)

[Righteousness]

Dear License Review Committee,

Thank you for the helpful feedback on our initial OSN-1.0 submission, and
particularly to McCoy Smith for the detailed comments. I have revised the
license to address the issues raised (clarified contributor/CLA
interaction, tightened redistribution language, defined the syscall
boundary, softened indemnity, and moved non-normative guidance to a single,
explicitly-labeled advisory section). Below is a concise summary of the
changes and explanations requested by the committee.

*Who authored & legal review*

   - *Author: *Kartik Pawar (Orivex Project Lead)
   - *Legal review: *The text was drafted by the project team (Kartik
   Pawar) and has undergone internal peer review by Orivex contributors. It
   has not yet been through external counsel. We are prepared to obtain and
   provide an independent legal review if the committee recommends it.

*What gap OSN-1.0 fills (short statement)*
OSN-1.0 fills a narrow interoperability gap not directly covered by common
permissive licenses: it provides a clear, normative treatment of *syscall/ABI
boundary files *(headers, syscall numbers, ABI-structure layouts, formal
ABI docs) so those files may be licensed in a way that preserves
attribution and patent grants while *avoiding the creation of
derivative-work obligations for callers across the syscall boundary*. In
short: OSN clarifies how syscall/ABI interface artifacts can be reused by
both open-source and proprietary userland implementations without producing
unintended downstream copyleft consequences.

*Comparison with Apache-2.0 (short)*

   - *Form & grants: *OSN borrows familiar structure and grant language
   (copyright + patent) similar to Apache-2.0.
   - *Key differences: *OSN introduces a *normative definition of "Syscall
   Boundary" *and places explicit, enforceable conditions for syscall/ABI
   interface redistributions (attribution, notice pointers). OSN also
   clarifies the relationship between automatic contribution licensing and
   optional CLAs so that a CLA cannot reduce downstream rights already granted
   under the license. Unlike Apache, OSN is scoped to syscall/ABI interface
   files and their reuse semantics at kernel/userland boundaries.

*Responses to McCoy's specific points*

   1. *Contribution section / CLA ambiguity: *Fixed by making the automatic
   contribution license (Section 5.2) effective on submission and explicitly
   stating that a CLA (if offered) *may not reduce downstream recipient
   rights *for Contributions already licensed under Section 5.2. If a
   Contributor later explicitly states a Contribution is governed solely by a
   CLA, that fact will control only as to that later Contribution. This
   resolves precedence and ambiguity concerns.
   2. *Section 5.4 / unnecessary statements removed: *Any redundant or
   advisory text implying projects must accept contributions was removed.
   Contribution process guidance is governance material and explicitly
   separated from the operative license terms.
   3. *"Should" vs "Must" language in redistribution: *Where preservation
   of provenance/notice is required for license integrity, advisory “should”
   language was changed to *"must" *(Sections 4.1-4.3, 4.4 for binaries).
   Traceability encouragement (e.g., SYSCALL-CHANGES.md) is explicitly
   non-normative and advisory only.
   4. *Syscall boundary definition: *Added an explicit, normative
   definition of *"Syscall Boundary" *in the Definitions section to anchor
   what files the license targets.
   5. *Indemnity clause: *Softened to state that contributors/users are
   responsible for claims arising from their own modifications or
   distributions, and removed any broad affirmative indemnity obligations for
   Licensors. Any additional indemnity must be in a separate written
   agreement.
   6. *Termination & multiple Licensors: *Clarified that only the Licensor
   whose rights are affected may initiate termination as to their portion of
   the Software.
   7. *Non-normative material reduced: * All prior explanatory/templating
   content was removed or consolidated into a single, explicitly-labelled
   non-normative suggestion section (Section 14). The operative license
   (Sections 1–13) is normative.
   8. *SPDX identifier & formatting: *SPDX identifier normalized to
Orivex-syscall-note-1.0
   and author name updated to *Kartik Pawar*.

*What I'm submitting now*

   - The *revised OSN-1.0 *license text is attached for your convenience.

Thank you for your time and guidance. Please let me know if the committee
would prefer the redline as an attachment or if any additional edits would
make review easier.

Sincerely,
*Kartik Pawar*
Orivex Project Lead
karuman2013 at gmail.com
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