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Dear License Review List:<br>
<br>
At its Board meeting on January 17, 2025, the Board voted on the
recommendation of the License Review Committee and declined to
accept the Accountable Resolver License as an OSI-Approved License.<br>
<br>
Pamela S. Chestek<br>
Chair, Licensing Committee<br>
Open Source Initiative<br>
<div class="moz-signature"><br>
<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/15/2025 8:51 AM, Pamela Chestek
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:df0b240a-229e-30e7-3536-6db5c28ae016@opensource.org">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
Dear License Review List:<br>
<br>
Below is the recommendation of the License Review Committee that
the Accountable Resolver License not be approved as an
OSI-Approved license, to be voted on at the next Board meeting.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
Pamela S. Chestek<br>
Chair, Licensing Committee<br>
Open Source Initiative<br>
<br>
==========================<br>
<br>
License: Accountable Resolver License version 1.0 (Exhibit A)<br>
Submitted: October 21, 2024,
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2024-October/005575.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2024-October/005575.html</a><br>
Decision date: due no later than the first Board meeting after
December 21, 2024<br>
<br>
<u>License Review Committee Recommendation: </u><br>
<br>
Resolved that it is the opinion of the OSI that the Accountable
Resolver License version 1.0 does not conform to the OSD and
assure software freedom and the license is therefore not approved.<br>
<br>
<u>Rationale Document</u><br>
<br>
Reasons for withholding approval: In section 4.6 the license
expressly prohibits using the licensed software “to infringe,
invade, breach, or otherwise fail to protect the privacy of any
DID subject making use of the services provided by the Work.” This
use restriction violates OSD 6, No Discrimination Against Fields
of Endeavor. <br>
<br>
The license is also poorly drafted, which would cause significant
interpretation problems. For example, it claims to grant a license
to “take any action with the Work that would infringe the
non-patent intellectual property laws of any jurisdiction to which
You are subject.” However, “intellectual property” is an ambiguous
term, as exemplified by the statement in the license that
“Licensor does not grant any license to the trademarks, service
marks, or logos of Licensor, except to the extent necessary to
comply with the attribution conditions in section 4.1 of this
License.” A trademark is generally considered “intellectual
property,” so the license both grants a license to trademarks in
section 3.1(a) and does not in section 3.2(b). Moreover, there
are no “attribution conditions in section 4.1,” they are in
section 4.3. <br>
<br>
The license submitter did not respond to the issues raised on the
license-review list.<br>
<br>
<i>Exhibit A</i><br>
<br>
Accountable Resolver License version 1.0<br>
<br>
1. Purpose<br>
<br>
This License gives You unlimited permission to use and modify the
software to which it applies (the “Work”), either as-is or in
modified form, for Your private purposes while protecting the
owners and contributors to the software from liability and subject
to the accountability condition defined in section 4.6.<br>
<br>
This license enables any person or organization to download, use,
and modify the software for a Federated DID Resolver Server (the
Work) to resolve DID documents with provisions to ensure that
there is no third-party surveillance of the activities or metadata
of individuals or organizations that make use of services provided
by the Work as defined in section 4.6.<br>
<br>
1.1 Definitions<br>
<br>
1.1.1 DID<br>
Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), are a W3C standard. They provide
a way to point to DID documents that contain cryptographic keys
and metadata. A DID resolver is an application that resolves DIDs
to their associated DID documents.<br>
<br>
1.1.2 Licensor<br>
Portable Data Corporation, operating as JLINC Labs, is the
licensor of the Work and provides this Accountable Resolver
License under the terms set out below.<br>
<br>
1.1.3 Receiver<br>
Any entity has the right to the Work by abiding with the terms set
out in this license.<br>
<br>
1.1.4 DID Subject<br>
DID Subjects are natural persons or other entities identified by
and capable of controlling the DID. The receiver of this license
must respect the privacy of the DID Subject as set out in 4.6
below.<br>
<br>
2. Receiving a License<br>
In order to receive this License, You must agree to its rules. The
rules of this License are both obligations of Your agreement with
the Licensor and conditions to your License. You must not do
anything with the Work that triggers a rule You cannot or will not
follow.<br>
<br>
2.1. Application<br>
The terms of this License apply to the Work as you receive it from
Licensor, as well as to any modifications, elaborations, or
implementations created by You that contain any licensable portion
of the Work (a “Modified Work”). Unless specified, any reference
to the Work also applies to a Modified Work.<br>
<br>
2.2. Offer and Acceptance<br>
This License is automatically offered to every person and
organization. You show that you accept this License and agree to
its conditions by taking any action with the Work that, absent
this License, would infringe any intellectual property right held
by Licensor.<br>
<br>
2.3. Compliance and Remedies<br>
Any failure to act according to the terms and conditions of this
License places Your use of the Work outside the scope of the
License and infringes the intellectual property rights of the
Licensor. In the event of infringement, the terms and conditions
of this License may be enforced by Licensor under the intellectual
property laws of any jurisdiction to which You are subject. You
also agree that either the Licensor or a Recipient (as an intended
third-party beneficiary) may enforce the terms and conditions of
this License against You via specific performance.<br>
<br>
3. Permissions and Conditions<br>
<br>
3.1. Permissions Granted<br>
<br>
Conditioned on compliance with section 4, and subject to the
limitations of section 3.2, Licensor grants You the world-wide,
royalty-free, non-exclusive permission to:<br>
<br>
a) Take any action with the Work that would infringe the
non-patent intellectual property laws of any jurisdiction to which
You are subject; and<br>
<br>
b) Take any action with the Work that would infringe any patent
claims that Licensor can license or becomes able to license, to
the extent that those claims are embodied in the Work as
distributed by Licensor.<br>
<br>
3.2. Limitations on Permissions Granted<br>
The following limitations apply to the permissions granted in
section 3.1:<br>
<br>
a) Licensor does not grant any patent license for claims that are
only infringed due to modification of the Work as provided by
Licensor, or the combination of the Work as provided by Licensor,
directly or indirectly, with any other component, including other
software or hardware.<br>
<br>
b) Licensor does not grant any license to the trademarks, service
marks, or logos of Licensor, except to the extent necessary to
comply with the attribution conditions in section 4.1 of this
License.<br>
<br>
4. Conditions<br>
If You exercise any permission granted by this License, such that
the Work, or any part, aspect, or element of the Work, is
distributed, communicated, made available, or made perceptible to
a non-Affiliate third party (a “Recipient”), either via physical
delivery or via a network connection to the Recipient, You must
comply with the following conditions:<br>
<br>
4.1. Provide Access to Source Code<br>
Subject to the exception in section 4.4, You must provide to each
Recipient a copy of, or no-charge unrestricted network access to,
the Source Code corresponding to the Work.<br>
<br>
The “Source Code” of the Work means the form of the Work preferred
for making modifications, including any comments, configuration
information, documentation, help materials, installation
instructions, cryptographic seeds or keys, and any information
reasonably necessary for the Recipient to independently compile
and use the Source Code and to have full access to the
functionality contained in the Work.<br>
<br>
4.1.1. Providing Network Access to the Source Code<br>
Network access to the Notices and Source Code may be provided by
You or by a third party, such as a public software repository, and
must persist during the same period in which You exercise any of
the permissions granted to You under this License and for at least
one year thereafter.<br>
<br>
4.1.2. Source Code for a Modified Work<br>
Subject to the exception in section 4.5, You must provide to each
Recipient of a Modified Work Access to Source Code corresponding
to those portions of the Work remaining in the Modified Work as
well as the modifications used by You to create the Modified Work.
The Source Code corresponding to the modifications in the Modified
Work must be provided to the Recipient either a) under this
License, or b) under a Compatible Open-Source License.<br>
<br>
A “Compatible Open-Source License” means a license accepted by the
Open Source Initiative that allows object code created using both
Source Code provided under this License and Source Code provided
under the other open source license to be distributed together as
a single work.<br>
<br>
4.1.3. Coordinated Disclosure of Security Vulnerabilities<br>
You may delay providing the Source Code corresponding to a
particular modification of the Work for up to ninety (90) days
(the “Embargo Period”) if:<br>
<br>
a) the modification is intended to address a newly-identified
vulnerability or a security flaw in the Work,<br>
<br>
b) disclosure of the vulnerability or security flaw before the end
of the Embargo Period would put the data, identity, or autonomy of
one or more Recipients of the Work at significant risk,<br>
<br>
c) You are participating in a coordinated disclosure of the
vulnerability or security flaw with one or more additional
Licensees, and<br>
<br>
d) Access to the Source Code pertaining to the modification is
provided to all Recipients at the end of the Embargo Period.<br>
<br>
<br>
4.2. No Legal or Contractual Measures that Limit Access<br>
You may not contractually restrict a Recipient’s ability to
independently exercise the permissions granted under this License.
You waive any legal power to forbid circumvention of technical
protection measures that include use of the Work, and You waive
any claim that the capabilities of the Work were limited or
modified as a means of enforcing the legal rights of third parties
against Recipients.<br>
<br>
4.3. Provide Notices and Attribution<br>
You must retain all licensing, authorship, or attribution notices
contained in the Source Code (the “Notices”), and provide all such
Notices to each Recipient, together with a statement acknowledging
the use of the Work. Notices may be provided directly to a
Recipient or via an easy-to-find hyperlink to an Internet location
also providing Access to Source Code.<br>
<br>
4.4. Scope of Conditions in this License<br>
You are required to uphold the conditions of this License only
relative to those who are Recipients of the Work from You. Other
than providing Recipients with the applicable Notices and Access
to Source Code nothing in this License requires You to provide
processing services to or engage in network interactions with
anyone.<br>
<br>
4.5. Combined Work Exception<br>
As an exception to condition that You provide Recipients Access to
Source Code, any Source Code files marked by the Licensor as
having the “Combined Work Exception,” or any object code
exclusively resulting from Source Code files so marked, may be
combined with other Software into a “Larger Work.” So long as you
comply with the requirements to provide Recipients the applicable
Notices and Access to the Source Code provided to You by Licensor,
any other Software in the Larger Work as well as the Larger Work
as a whole may be licensed under the terms of your choice.<br>
<br>
4.6 Respect for DID subject’s Privacy<br>
You may not use the permissions granted under this License to
infringe, invade, breach, or otherwise fail to protect the privacy
of any DID subject making use of the services provided by the
Work.<br>
<br>
Privacy, for the purpose of this license, means a duty of care for
the protection and confidentiality of any data generated by the
operation of the Work, such as server logs or any other logs or
metadata, that would enable the surveillance or correlation of the
activities of the DID subject or other entities identified in the
DID document by the Receiver or third parties, unless the Receiver
is legally compelled otherwise.<br>
<br>
Further, the Receiver may not make use of, or give or sell any
such generated data, or any data within a DID document, for any
purpose other than to make DID documents resolvable.<br>
<br>
<br>
5. Term and Termination<br>
The term of this License begins when You receive the Work, and
continues until terminated for any of the reasons described
herein, or until all Licensor’s intellectual property rights in
the Software expire, whichever comes first (“Term”). This License
cannot be revoked, only terminated for the reasons listed below.<br>
<br>
5.1. Effect of Termination<br>
If this License is terminated for any reason, all permissions
granted to You under Section 3 by any Licensor automatically
terminate. You will immediately cease exercising any permissions
granted in this License relative to the Work, including as part of
any Modified Work.<br>
<br>
5.2. Termination for Non-Compliance; Reinstatement<br>
This License terminates automatically if You fail to comply with
any of the conditions in section 4. As a special exception to
termination for non-compliance, Your permissions for the Work
under this License will automatically be reinstated if You come
into compliance with all the conditions in section 2 within sixty
(60) days of being notified by Licensor or an intended third party
beneficiary of Your noncompliance. You are eligible for
reinstatement of permissions for the Work one time only, and only
for the sixty days immediately after becoming aware of
noncompliance. Loss of permissions granted for the Work under this
License due to either a) sustained noncompliance lasting more than
sixty days or b) subsequent termination for noncompliance after
reinstatement, is permanent, unless rights are specifically
restored by Licensor in writing.<br>
<br>
5.3. Termination Due to Litigation<br>
If You initiate litigation against Licensor, or any Recipient of
the Work, either direct or indirect, asserting that the Work
directly or indirectly infringes any patent, then all permissions
granted to You by this License shall terminate. In the event of
termination due to litigation, all permissions validly granted by
You under this License, directly or indirectly, shall survive
termination. Administrative review procedures, declaratory
judgment actions, counterclaims in response to patent litigation,
and enforcement actions against former Licensees terminated under
this section do not cause termination due to litigation.<br>
<br>
6. Disclaimer of Warranty and Limit on Liability<br>
As far as the law allows, the Work comes AS-IS, without any
warranty of any kind, and no Licensor or contributor will be
liable to anyone for any damages related to this software or this
license, under any kind of legal claim, or for any type of
damages, including indirect, special, incidental, or consequential
damages of any type arising as a result of this License or the use
of the Work including, without limitation, damages for loss of
goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, loss of
profits, revenue, or any and all other commercial damages or
losses.<br>
<br>
7. Other Provisions<br>
<br>
7.1. Affiliates<br>
An “Affiliate” means any other entity that, directly or indirectly
through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or
is under common control with, the Licensee. Employees of a
Licensee and natural persons acting as contractors exclusively
providing services to Licensee are also Affiliates.<br>
<br>
7.2. Choice of Jurisdiction and Governing Law<br>
A Licensor may require that any action or suit by a Licensee
relating to a Work provided by Licensor under this License may be
brought only in the courts of a particular jurisdiction and under
the laws of a particular jurisdiction (excluding its
conflict-of-law provisions), if Licensor provides conspicuous
notice of the particular jurisdiction to all Licensees.<br>
<br>
7.3. No Sublicensing<br>
This License is not sublicensable. Each time You provide the Work
or a Modified Work to a Recipient, the Recipient automatically
receives a license under the terms described in this License. You
may not impose any further reservations, conditions, or other
provisions on any Recipients’ exercise of the permissions granted
herein.<br>
<br>
7.4. Attorneys’ Fees<br>
In any action to enforce the terms of this License, or seeking
damages relating thereto, including by an intended third party
beneficiary, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its
costs and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable
attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in connection with such action,
including any appeal of such action. A “prevailing party” is the
party that achieves, or avoids, compliance with this License,
including through settlement. This section shall survive the
termination of this License.<br>
<br>
7.5. No Waiver<br>
Any failure by Licensor to enforce any provision of this License
will not constitute a present or future waiver of such provision
nor limit Licensor’s ability to enforce such provision at a later
time.<br>
<br>
7.6. Severability<br>
If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such
provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make
it enforceable. Any invalid or unenforceable portion will be
interpreted to the effect and intent of the original portion. If
such a construction is not possible, the invalid or unenforceable
portion will be severed from this License but the rest of this
License will remain in full force and effect.<br>
<br>
7.7. License for the Text of this License<br>
The text of this license is released under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, with the caveat
that any modifications of this license may not use the name
“Accountable Resolver License” or any name confusingly similar
thereto to describe any derived work of this License.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/21/2024 10:39 AM, Victor Grey
via License-review wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:5CB74FBB-0737-43A1-9859-CA5166F0210C@jlinc.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">To the OSI community, this is a request for approval for a new special-purpose open source license, as attached. The license is intended for software that provides registration and resolution services for Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://w3c.github.io/did-core/" moz-do-not-send="true">https://w3c.github.io/did-core/</a>). Such software may be used as a standalone service or incorporated into any other software to provide DID resolution services for any purpose, conditioned on it not being used to violate the privacy rights of end users of the service.
It is based on the Cryptographic Autonomy License (CAL-1.0) and is identical to CAL-1.0 with the exceptions of section 1 and portions of section 4.
* We believe and affirm that the license complies with the Open Source Definition, including specifically that it meets OSD 3, 5, 6 and 9.
* The license is currently being used in a private beta of a Federated ID service offered by JLINC Labs, and is already planned to be incorporated in several other businesses, to become public this year or early next year.
* The license steward and submitter is Victor Grey, on behalf of the Portable Data Corporation DBA JLINC Labs, reachable at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:victor@jlinc.com" moz-do-not-send="true">victor@jlinc.com</a>.
* The license shall be known as the Accountable Resolver License version 1.0.
* There are no unique identifiers by other projects or proposed tags.
* We believe it fills a gap in necessary privacy requirements for these types of services that we have found in no other license.
* As stated above, it is based on CAL-1.0.
* It has not been through any other legal review by us.
Many thanks for your attention,
Victor Grey
</pre>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Communication from the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.
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</pre>
</blockquote>
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