board action on License Committee Report for September 2005

[Russell Nelson]

Mark Shewmaker writes:
 > That's not at all true.  There were multiple folks, including myself,
 > who don't think the OVPL complies with the OSD.  We had extensive
 > discussion on the list on it.

I read all the comments on the OVPL submission, and I didn't see any
extensive discussion.  Perhaps there was discussion prior to the
submission?

 > I find that rather confusing.

Sorry to confuse you.  That would be my bad.  It seems like I missed
some comments.  Could you pull them out of the archives and point me
at them?

 > licenses which granted the licensor more rights than the
 > licensee wouldn't be approved

No, it was "The license must be reusable".  Can't name individual
parties.  Have to use generic terms like "Licensor".  Can't name
trademarks.  And the principle we've followed has been "As long as
everyone gets a license that complies with the open source definition,
it doesn't matter if the license discriminates".

So a license that said "If you're running a nuclear power plant, you
can't use my software" would not pass muster.

A license that said "If you're running a nuclear power plant, you
can only redistribute my software under the GPL.  Everyone else gets
BSD terms" would be approvable.

So I think it would violate that principle to reject a license that
says "Everybody gets OSD rights, but some people get more rights."

 > Or bringing up reasons why it might be OSD compatible:  For instance,
 > since a license that required individuals to pay someone $10000.00 for
 > each and every modification could possibly be argued to be technically
 > OSD compliant,

Argue away, but it would violate OSD#7. What do you get for your $10K?
An additional license.

-- 
--my blog is at     blog.russnelson.com         | with some experience 
Crynwr sells support for free software  | PGPok |     you know what to do.
521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-323-1241       | with more experience
Potsdam, NY 13676-3213  |     Sheepdog          |     you know what not to do.