For Approval: Open-Realty License

[Brian C]

Note: I'm just a lurker and have no say in your license's approval, but
I would suggest:

"If you use Open-Realty in an application you redistribute, the complete
source code for your application must be available and freely[1]
redistributable under a license that is both approved by the OSI as an
'open source' license and under a license that is recognized by the FSF
as a 'free software' license."

Otherwise, under the wording you use below, the FSF might not consider
your license a "free software" license, because of the possibility that
down-stream versions of your code could be licensed under OSI-approved
licenses that the FSF thought were not 'free software' licenses. (There
are not many cases of this, but it has happened in the past.) Now, you
mailed OSI's license list for approval, so you may not care about any of
this, but in general, open source projects are probably better off if
everyone in the community agrees on the status of works under a given
license. (To the extent that's possible).

[1] I would also suggest thinking of a way to purge 'freely' from that
because it is ambiguous. For instance, do you mean: "redistributable at
no cost" or "redistributable without royalty"? You must be careful not
to forbid charging for the software or you will violate the Open Source
Definition, clause 1. If you're just talking about source code then
clause 2 of the Definition suggests "for no more than a reasonable
reproduction cost").

Brian Carver

Ryan Bonham wrote:
> Rod,
> 
> My apologies for admitting that in my approval request, been working to
> many hours.. I can change that to read. "If you use Open-Realty in an
> application you redistribute, the complete source code for your
> application must be available and freely redistributable under an
> approved OSI license." or if you have a suggestion on how to word that I
> am all ears, the basic goal was to make sure that any applications built
> using our source are then released under and open-source license and
> that the include the html comments..
> 
> I also have a question, if we dual license the application with one
> license allowing removal of the html comment and charge for this license
> but still require that the code remain open-source etc, will this effect
> OSI approval of the license?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Ryan Bonham
> Transparent Technologies
> ryan at transparent-tech.com
> 
> Phone: (888) 418-8900
> Help Desk: http://www.transparent-tech.com/esupport/
> 
> 
> 
> Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M. wrote:
> 
>> I have one question.   On your website at:
>> http://www.open-realty.org/license_info.html you state that your license:
>>
>> "...permits you to use the software at no charge under two conditions.
>>
>> 1.You have to leave the html comment that reads "<!--Open-Realty is
>> distributed by Transparent Technologies and is Licensed under the
>> Open-Realty License. See http://www.open-realty.org/oslicense.html for
>> more information.-->”" intact.
>>
>> 2. If you use Open-Realty in an application you redistribute, the
>> complete source code for your application must be available and freely
>> redistributable under reasonable conditions."
>>
>> The second condition is not only vague, but it does not actually
>> appear in the license you posted. Is this an additional requirement?
>> What does "reasonable conditions" mean?
>>
>> -Rod Dixon
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ryan Bonham"
>> <ryan at transparent-tech.com>
>> To: <license-discuss at opensource.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 6:56 PM
>> Subject: For Approval: Open-Realty License
>>
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I would like to submit our open source projects license for approval.
>>> The Open-Realty license is similar to the new BSD license. It
>>> additionally requires that web pages built using our open source
>>> project leave the following html comment "<!--Open-Realty is
>>> distributed by Transparent Technologies and is Licensed under the
>>> Open-Realty License. See http://www.open-realty.org/oslicense.html
>>> for more information.-->". Our software can be used in conjunction
>>> with other open source products, as long as the html comment
>>> mentioned previously is present on all pages that use our projects
>>> source code.
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------- Start Open-Relaty License -------------
>>>
>>> Copyright (c) 2003-2005
>>> Transparent Technologies. All rights reserved.
>>>
>>> Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
>>> modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
>>> are met:
>>>
>>> 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
>>> notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
>>> 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
>>> notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
>>> documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
>>> 3. Neither the name of the Transparent Technologies nor the names of
>>> its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
>>> from this software without specific prior written permission.
>>> 4. All websites using Open-Realty must leave the html comment that
>>> reads “<!--Open-Realty is distributed by Transparent Technologies and
>>> is licensed under the Open-Realty License. See
>>> http://www.open-realty.org/oslicense.html for more information.-->”
>>> intact.
>>>
>>> THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY TRANSPARENT TECHNOLOGIES AND ITS
>>> CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
>>> INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
>>> MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
>>> IN NO EVENT SHALL TRANSPARENT TECHNOLOGIES OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE
>>> LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
>>> CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
>>> SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
>>> BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
>>> WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
>>> OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE,
>>> EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------- End Open-Relaty License -------------
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Ryan Bonham
>>> Transparent Technologies
>>> ryan at transparent-tech.com
>>>
>>>
>>
> 
>