[License-discuss] OSI is not a trade association

[Scott Peterson]

If the Open Source Initiative was a trade association tasked with providing
efficient, clear determinations of what did and did not conform to some
standard that had been agreed among competitors in an industry, then it
would be important for the organization to have detailed processes by which
determinations are made, and it could make sense for the organization to
actively create guidance that makes clear how the latest factors of current
interest in the industry affect how products will fit with respect to the
lines around the definition.

But that is not the role of the Open Source Initiative.
The document that is the Open Source Definition is a tool, not an end in
itself.
One formalistic view of what drives the OSI can be seen in its bylaws.
https://opensource.org/bylaws

For me, the relevance of this observation developed as I watched
license-discuss@ and license-review@ over the last many months. While not
directly on topic for the ongoing threads, I see this observation as
continuing have sufficient relevance (albeit on the edges of what is being
discussed) that I have finally decided to post this comment.

-- Scott
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