[License-review] Adding the curl License

Thu Feb 5 16:42:45 UTC 2026

I agree. In my opinion this was the intention of the legacy category, a 
more liberal review of licenses that are widely accepted as open source.

Pam

Pamela S. Chestek
Chestek Legal
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On 2/5/2026 1:51 AM, Carlo Piana via License-review wrote:
> If it was a new license, I would advise to non-accept it. But since 
> it's a widely used and for a long time license, I think we can give it 
> a slot in the accepted licenses list, since any proliferation concerns 
> are moot at this point ;-)
>
> Carlo
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>     *Da: *"Christoph Röth via License-review"
>     <license-review at lists.opensource.org>
>     *A: *"license-review at lists.opensource.org"
>     <license-review at lists.opensource.org>
>     *Cc: *"Christoph Röth" <Christoph.Roeth at web.de>
>     *Inviato: *Mercoledì, 4 febbraio 2026 19:44:36
>     *Oggetto: *[License-review] Adding the curl License
>
>     Dear OSI License-Approval Forum,
>
>
>     I would like the curl license to be added. The license has been
>     around for quite some time, so it can be classified as a legacy
>     license. The license is available at SPDX. The first communication
>     with the OSI took place in the license-discuss forum
>     (https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2026-January/022507.html).
>     I have received permission from the author of the curl project to
>     have the license listed with OSI (https://curl.se/mail/lib-2026-02/).
>
>
>     The question was raised in the discussion forum whether there are
>     plans to convert the Curl license to MIT. Since the license has
>     been in use for over 20 years now, there are no plans to change
>     it. The reasons for this are listed in the email communication.
>     In my opinion, the separate listing at SPDX also speaks in favour
>     of a separate license (https://spdx.org/licenses/curl.html).
>
>
>     Please find enclosed the information required for submitting a
>     license to the license-review mailing list.
>
>
>     **• Submit a copy of the license as an attachment in simple text
>     format.**
>
>     COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION NOTICE
>
>     Copyright (c) 1996 - 2015, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel at haxx.se>
>     <mailto:daniel at haxx.se>.
>     All rights reserved.
>
>     Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for
>     any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that
>     the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
>     all copies.
>
>     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
>     AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
>     OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
>     OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE
>     OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE 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.
>
>
>     **• Affirmatively state that the license complies with the Open
>     Source Definition, including specifically affirming it meets OSD
>     3, 5, 6 and 9.**
>
>     I can confirm that the license complies with the Open Source
>     Definition.
>
>     3. Derived Works: Yes
>
>     5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups: Yes
>
>     6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor: Yes
>
>     9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software: Yes
>
>
>     **• Identify what projects are already using the license.**
>
>     The curl project itself.
>
>
>     **• Provide the identity and contact details of the license
>     steward, if known, and of the submitter. The OSI will try to get
>     in touch with the license steward if the license submitter is not
>     the steward.**
>
>     Daniel Stenberg, <daniel at haxx.se>
>     The permission for listing by the Open Source Initiative can be
>     found here: https://curl.se/mail/lib-2026-02/
>
>
>     **• Provide any additional information that the submitter believes
>     would be helpful for license review. For example, approval of the
>     license by Debian, the FSF or the Fedora Project would be relevant
>     to the review process.**
>
>
>     The website contains this text with detailed information about the
>     license, https://curl.se/docs/faq.html#license
>
>
>     What license does curl use exactly?
>
>     curl is released under an MIT derivative license. It is similar
>     but not identical to the MIT license.
>
>     The difference is considered big enough to make SPDX list it under
>     its own identifier: curl.
>
>     The changes done to the license that make it uniquely curl were
>     tiny and well-intended, but the reasons for them have been
>     forgotten and we strongly discourage others from doing the same thing.
>
>
>     **• Provide a unique name for the license, preferably including
>     the version number.**
>
>     Full name: curl License (according to SPDX)
>
>     Short identifier: curl (according to SPDX)
>
>
>     **• If any exist, provide the unique identifier by other projects,
>     like SPDX or ScanCode.**
>
>     https://spdx.org/licenses/curl.html
>
>
>
>
>     McCoy Smith added a comparison of the licenses to the
>     License-discuss forum. Here is the content of the *.odt file that
>     was attached at the time. The colours blue and red are the colours
>     used in SPDX. The strikethrough text was included in the MIT
>     license and has been omitted from the curl license. The green text
>     was not available in the MIT license and has been added. I hope
>     the email transfers the format correctly.
>
>     MIT License
>
>     COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION NOTICE
>
>     Copyright (c) <year> <copyright holders>1996 - 2015, Daniel
>     Stenberg, <daniel at haxx.se>.
>     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 Softwarewithout restriction,
>     including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify,
>     merge, publish, and distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of
>     the this sSoftware, and to permit persons to whom the Softwareis
>     furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:for any
>     purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that
>
>     tThe above copyright notice and this permission notice
>     appear(including the next paragraph)shall be included in all
>     copiesor substantial portions of the Software.
>
>     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
>     AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
>     OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
>     OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE
>     OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE 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.
>
>
>     Best regards
>
>     Christoph
>
>
>
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>
>
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