Submitting a new license or using the current ones

[Chuck Swiger]

On May 6, 2004, at 2:16 PM, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
>> I don't understand why there are so many licenses, if the open-source
>> specification is so rigid.
>
> I don't really understand it either.  I mean, I know how we got here
> step by step, but looking at the situation now it doesn't make much
> sense.

The list of OSI-approved licenses includes near-duplicates such as the 
BSD license versus the SleepyCat license or the "University of 
Illinois/NCSA Open Source License", for one thing.  [Or the NetHack 
license versus the GPLv1...]

Others who have suggested that the list of approved licenses is going 
to continue to grow are very likely right, but is that a problem?

If so, efforts to create license templates with a range of choices 
which result in OSI Open Source-compatible terms, such as the Creative 
Commons licenses, seem to be a good idea.  A similar effort could be 
made to coalesce BSD-like licenses, GPL-derived licenses, and perhaps 
others (the MPL?).

-- 
-Chuck

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