[License-review] Submission: CNRI-Python-GPL-Compatible

[Richard Fontana]

On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 1:34 PM Richard Fontana <fontana at sharpeleven.org> wrote:
>
> "
>
> On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 12:39 PM Josh Berkus <josh at berkus.org> wrote:
> >
> > On 3/20/26 9:13 AM, Max Mehl wrote:
> > > Following a discussion on license-discuss@ <https://
> > > lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-
> > > discuss_lists.opensource.org/2026-March/022526.html> and a quick
> > > coordination with Deb from the Python Software Foundation (in Cc), I
> > > would like to propose that CNRI-Python-GPL-Compatible be considered an
> > > officially approved (legacy) Open Source license. In the same step, I
> > > propose to mark CNRI-Python as either Superseded or Voluntarily Retired.
> >
> > The CNRI is written as a clickwrap agreement, rather than as a license.
> > Does this make it problematic to approve?
>
> The relevant phrasing is:
>
> BY CLICKING ON "ACCEPT" WHERE INDICATED BELOW, OR BY COPYING,
> INSTALLING OR OTHERWISE USING PYTHON 1.6.1 SOFTWARE, YOU ARE DEEMED TO
> HAVE AGREED TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT.
>
> Some other OSI-approved licenses have similar sorts of "usewrap"
> language. This arguably includes the GPL, though the provision I'm
> thinking of (GPLv2 section 5) is careful to refer only to "modifying
> or distributing", and it seems to have gotten reinterpreted by people
> in the GPL community.
>
> A "clickwrap" requirement would violate the OSD, and this was the
> point of the only amendment to the OSD ever made, OSD 10 ("No
> provision of the license may be predicated on any individual
> technology or style of interface").

To clarify since I realize I didn't really answer Josh's question, I
don't think a "clickwrap or usewrap" clause as we have here violates
OSD 10 but I suppose it's debatable. I assume there never was anything
to "click" in historical versions of Python and this is just ignorant
license lawyer drafting, and I hope that there are no present-day
official versions of Python for Windows or whatever where you have to
click accept in a GUI installer or something like that.

Richard