New license: Integrity Open Source License

Forrest J. Cavalier III mibsoft at mibsoftware.com
Wed Nov 10 15:31:16 UTC 1999


Of the popular OSD compliant licenses, I like the MIT style
license, but I wanted something that goes a little bit further
in protecting the author's name and integrity of original
source.  (OSD #4 at http://opensource.org/osd.html)

The OSD states that the license can restrict the distribution of
modified works to be "patch files" but I have become convinced
by discussions in the community that this is unworkable.

So changing as little as possible, from the MIT license, I
have the following.
     
As a small developer/consultant, name and trademark
recognition is very important, of course.  That really ends
up being the value I sell.  

The intent of the license is to allow distribution of unmodified
software far and wide, but requires that modified versions be
advertised and distributed using different names.

If someone knows of a MIT-style license with a similar
condition that already exists, please reply.  I could not
locate anything similar, and resorted to yet another open
source license.

With discussion and approval here, (and a better license name,)
my hope is that many other developers will use the license
when they wish to release open source software under a license
that better protects name recognition.



- - - - - - - - - - - - Copyright Notice - - - - - - - - - - - -
     Copyright 1999 Forrest J. Cavalier III

   MODIFICATION WARNING: This software may have been modified.
   See http://www.mibsoftware.com/libmib/ for documentation and
   up-to-date original copies, custom versions, support,
   or other licensing terms.  Other licensing arrangements are
   made in writing.

   We would appreciate that you notify us of defect discoveries
   and enhancements so that others can benefit from improvements
   to this software.

  - - - - - - - - - - - - - License - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
   Permission is hereby granted, to any person obtaining a copy of
   this software (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
   restriction, including the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
   publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the
   Software, subject to all the following conditions.

   1. The text beginning with the copyright notice above, and
   including
      the four clauses of this license shall be included in full and
   unmodified in all copies of the source files or portions thereof.

   2. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
      signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to
      modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These
      actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.

   3. The author(s) grant you a non-exclusive right to use the author-
      given names and trademarks of the Software to publish and
      distribute only unmodified source files.  Your rights to deal in
      the Software under this license are subject to the condition
      that you do not use nor associate trademarks, names, or
      reputation of the author(s) with modified derivative works
      except within the source files.

   4. 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. 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.





More information about the License-discuss mailing list