Copy-Back License draft for discussion

[Chris Zumbrunn]

I followed the discussions in the various threads sparked by the 
proposed Open Vendor licenses.

The different view points on topics such as special grants to the 
initial developer and license asymmetry made me think that a discussion 
of the Copy-Back License at http://cbl.czv.com/ could be constructive 
in this context.

The CBL was a "for fun" attempt to come up with a project-neutral 
license template that is as free and non-verbose as possible but has 
what I call a "copy-back" nature as opposed to copy-left or copy-right.

It's basically a template version of a BSD style license with the 
addition of clause 5 which asks for modifications and extensions to be 
shared back to the original contributor. It stays short of burdening 
the licensee with additional copy-left or copy-right restrictions. But 
the copy-back is a strong copy-back... How much copy-back is legal 
(compatible with copyright law) and how much copy-back is still "free"?

chris at czv.com  +41 329 41 41 41
Chris Zumbrunn Ventures - http://www.czv.com/
Internet Application Technology - Reduced to the Maximum