Simple Public License, Please Review

David Johnson david at usermode.org
Wed Apr 5 01:15:08 UTC 2000


>From the features listed (I haven't read the license yet):

> Hands the community the power to take action against violators of 
> the license--even if the original author is not around, has lost 
> interest, or doesn't have the time or money.

Uh, why? I haven't read the license terms for this yet, but it sounds
like it means to overturn centuries of legal precedence. Only one who
is injured is entitled damages. To take one example, if I trip on my
neighbor's sidewalk and injure myself, but choose NOT to sue him, what
right is it of yours to file in my place? To take another example, if I
receive from the original author special dispensation to use parts of
his work in my closed source program, perhaps in exchange for
renumeration, how can you possibly sue me for violating his license?

When someone violates the license of a piece of software, no one is
injured except the copyright holder. The users certainly aren't, moral
outrage is not injury.

> Requires that all other modifications be shared with the community,
> even if they aren't distributed. Thus you can't hide your improvements
> behind an application server.

I know where you're coming from with this, but this is too big of a
step. If I haven't distributed the modifications, then that is just
that -- I haven't distributed any. How I *use* the application is
none of the author's business in this community. This isn't a
requirement to be open, it is a requirement to be buck naked!

 -- 
David Johnson...
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http://www.usermode.org



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