[License-discuss] What should fit in a FOSS license?

Josh Berkus josh at berkus.org
Wed Mar 11 17:42:15 UTC 2020


On 3/11/20 6:56 AM, Russell Nelson wrote:
>> I still say we should use the Vaccine License as a case example of an
>> unpassable license on our website.
> 
> Not listing unpassable examples is a long-standing policy decision. We
> have plenty of examples of what passes muster. I've never seen why we
> need to list licenses that don't comply. Why do you think we need to
> provide that information?

Because the OSI needs to stop relying on the idea that people trust us
to decide fairly what makes sense in an OSS license.  They don't.  We
need to explain *why* the various clauses of the OSD exist, and not just
do "we're experienced and we know what we're doing".  Examples of
unpassable licenses *with an explanation of why they are unpassable*
would help.

For the vaccine license, I think I'll write a blog post to show you what
I mean.

-- 
Josh Berkus



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