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

[Pamela Chestek]

On 3/20/2026 10:41 AM, Richard Fontana wrote:
> 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 propose to mark CNRI-Python as either Superseded or Voluntarily Retired.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

I would say it doesn't because the clickwrap is in the alternative, "or 
by copying ...." It doesn't even say that /if/ there is a clickwrap you 
must assent that way. So, since there is a way to agree to the license, 
GUI or not, I would say it doesn't violate OSD10. And I appreciate the 
historical context to OSD10.


Pam

Pamela S. Chestek
Chestek Legal
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Unit 4316
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