New license - please comment

Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M. rdixon at cyberspaces.org
Tue Jun 10 19:20:22 UTC 2003


I am having some of the same difficulties as others with this draft. Section
2 has a couple of provisions that appear to be troubling because they seem
highly restrictive, and it is not apparent why. If you could post something
about what you are trying to accomplish, it might help. Your first post
began by acknowledging that the existing approved open source licenses did
not fit your needs, which is fine, but you did not state what that need was.
Telling us more is helpful for a number of reasons, including highlighting
why you borrowed provisions from the LGPL, instead of selecting that license
for your own.

Section 2(a) in the LGPL is tied to the peculiar purpose of the LGPL. Take a
look at the preamble again to consider whether your project meets the same
purpose (i.e. We use this license for certain libraries in order to permit
linking those libraries into non-free programs.)- - if that's your purpose,
then I would find your use of that provision consistent with the OSD.

Section 2(d) is probably unnecessary (assuming it's enforceable) since you
could simply require licensees to agree to a cross-license (a nonexclusive
reproduction or distribution license), rather than demand an ownership
interest in copyright (which I doubt many would be willing to grant you).


Rod

Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M.
http://www.cyberspaces.org/webzine/
rod at cyberspaces.org


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christophe Dupre" <duprec at scorec.rpi.edu>
To: <license-discuss at opensource.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 9:16 PM
Subject: New license - please comment


: Hello,
: my employer is considering releasing some components as open source.
: We have looked at various licenses, but none seems to do exactly as we
: need, so we have made this one.
:
: We would appreciate comments, especially with regards to OSI
certification.
:
: ----
:
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