For Approval: ACE License

Mon Feb 28 18:02:34 UTC 2005

If this license cannot be revised, I recommend that  OSI withhold approval. 
With a minor revision, I world agree that approval is warranted. The second 
paragraph should be revised. As it stands, I see a number of concerns under 
OSD Article#1,2, and 3 since the license appears to permit that the entire 
project may be taken proprietary by any licensee.  I doubt that this is the 
intent. IF  such latitude is intended, then the licensee world not comply 
with the OSD.  Under the BSD, this is a privilege reserved by the original 
copyright holder.

There is a significant difference between permitting licensees to 
distribute modifications or enhancements to original code under a 
proprietary license, which the BSD permits, and  permitting licensees to 
distribute the original code as a binary under a proprietary license, which 
the ACE license appears to permit.You probably mean to follow the BSD, but 
it is not clear.  Perhaps, one point of confusion may be clarified by 
replacing " proprietary" with binary.

Rod Dixon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Sedgwick" <ken at bonsai.com>
To: <license-discuss at opensource.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 8:36 PM
Subject: For Approval: ACE License

> Greetings,
>
> My name is Ken Sedgwick.  I am a volunteer package maintainer working
> to get the ACE and TAO software libraries into standard Linux
> distribution.  I am not a lawyer.
>
> The Fedora Extras (Linux Distribution) team has requested that newly
> submitted packages have OSI approved software licenses.  The ACE folks
> were agreeable to my submission of the ACE License for OSI
> certification.
>
> The plain text copy of the license is attached to this message.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Most Similar License
>
> The ACE License is most similar to the "New BSD License".  It has been
> in force for many years and over 1000 developers have contributed to
> the library under this license.  I don't think changing the license is
> practical at this point.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Use in Conjunction with Other Licenses
>
> The ACE License does not appear to be incompatible with other open
> source licenses.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> Ken
>
> -- 
> Ken Sedgwick
> Bonsai Software, Inc.
> (510) 610-4162
> ken+5a4 at bonsai.com
>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>     _________________________________________________________________
>
>  Copyright and Licensing Information for ACE(TM), TAO(TM), CIAO(TM), and
>  CoSMIC(TM)
>
>   [1]ACE(TM), [2]TAO(TM), [3]CIAO(TM), and [4]CoSMIC(TM) (henceforth
>   referred to as "DOC software") are copyrighted by [5]Douglas C.
>   Schmidt and his [6]research group at [7]Washington University,
>   [8]University of California, Irvine, and [9]Vanderbilt University,
>   Copyright (c) 1993-2005, all rights reserved. Since DOC software is
>   [10]open-source, free software, you are free to use, modify, copy, and
>   distribute--perpetually and irrevocably--the DOC software source code
>   and object code produced from the source, as well as copy and
>   distribute modified versions of this software. You must, however,
>   include this copyright statement along with code built using DOC
>   software.
>
>   You can use DOC software in proprietary software and are under no
>   obligation to redistribute any of your source code that is built using
>   DOC software. Note, however, that you may not do anything to the DOC
>   software code, such as copyrighting it yourself or claiming authorship
>   of the DOC software code, that will prevent DOC software from being
>   distributed freely using an open-source development model. You needn't
>   inform anyone that you're using DOC software in your software, though
>   we encourage you to let [11]us know so we can promote your project in
>   the [12]DOC software success stories..
>
>   DOC software is provided as is with no warranties of any kind,
>   including the warranties of design, merchantability, and fitness for a
>   particular purpose, noninfringement, or arising from a course of
>   dealing, usage or trade practice. Moreover, DOC software is provided
>   with no support and without any obligation on the part of Washington
>   University, UC Irvine, Vanderbilt University, their employees, or
>   students to assist in its use, correction, modification, or
>   enhancement. A [13]number of companies around the world provide
>   commercial support for DOC software, however. DOC software is
>   Y2K-compliant, as long as the underlying OS platform is Y2K-compliant.
>
>   Washington University, UC Irvine, Vanderbilt University, their
>   employees, and students shall have no liability with respect to the
>   infringement of copyrights, trade secrets or any patents by DOC
>   software or any part thereof. Moreover, in no event will Washington
>   University, UC Irvine, or Vanderbilt University, their employees, or
>   students be liable for any lost revenue or profits or other special,
>   indirect and consequential damages.
>
>   The [14]ACE, [15]TAO, [16]CIAO, and [17]CoSMIC web sites are
>   maintained by the [18]DOC Group at the [19]Institute for Software
>   Integrated Systems (ISIS) and the [20]Center for Distributed Object
>   Computing of Washington University, St. Louis for the development of
>   open-source software as part of the [21]open-source software
>   community. By submitting comments, suggestions, code, code snippets,
>   techniques (including that of usage), and algorithms, submitters
>   acknowledge that they have the right to do so, that any such
>   submissions are given freely and unreservedly, and that they waive any
>   claims to copyright or ownership. In addition, submitters acknowledge
>   that any such submission might become part of the copyright maintained
>   on the overall body of code, which comprises the DOC software. By
>   making a submission, submitter agree to these terms. Furthermore,
>   submitters acknowledge that the incorporation or modification of such
>   submissions is entirely at the discretion of the moderators of the
>   open-source DOC software projects or their designees.
>
>   The names ACE(TM), TAO(TM), CIAO(TM), CoSMIC(TM), Washington
>   University, UC Irvine, and Vanderbilt University, may not be used to
>   endorse or promote products or services derived from this source
>   without express written permission from Washington University, UC
>   Irvine, or Vanderbilt University. Further, products or services
>   derived from this source may not be called ACE(TM), TAO(TM), CIAO(TM),
>   or CoSMIC(TM) nor may the name Washington University, UC Irvine, or
>   Vanderbilt University appear in their names, without express written
>   permission from Washington University, UC Irvine, and Vanderbilt
>   University.
>
>   If you have any suggestions, additions, comments, or questions, please
>   let [22]me know.
>
>   [23]Douglas C. Schmidt
>     _________________________________________________________________
>
>   Back to the [24]ACE home page.
>
>   Last modified 21:26:22 CST 03 November 2003
>
> References
>
>   1. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html
>   2. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html
>   3. http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/CIAO/
>   4. http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/cosmic/
>   5. http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/
>   6. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE-members.html
>   7. http://www.wustl.edu/
>   8. http://www.uci.edu/
>   9. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/
>  10. http://www.the-it-resource.com/Open-Source/Licenses.html
>  11. mailto:doc_group at cs.wustl.edu
>  12. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE-users.html
>  13. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/commercial-support.html
>  14. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html
>  15. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html
>  16. http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/CIAO/
>  17. http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/cosmic/
>  18. http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/
>  19. http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/
>  20. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/doc-center.html
>  21. http://www.opensource.org/
>  22. mailto:d.schmidt at vanderbilt.edu
>  23. http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/
>  24. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/ACE.html
> 