[License-discuss] How can we as a community help empower authors outside license agreements?

[McCoy Smith]

From: License-discuss <license-discuss-bounces at lists.opensource.org> On Behalf Of Tobie Langel
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2020 9:50 AM
To: license-discuss at lists.opensource.org
Subject: Re: [License-discuss] How can we as a community help empower authors outside license agreements?

 

It is critical that authorities and experts in this field lead through example and kindness (like I've already seen many do) and not by appeals to authority. 

 

Well, that sort of depends on what “authority” is being appealed to.  If it’s the argument, that has been tossed out several times on several different discussions (not just ethics, also data), that “I’ve been around this a long time, I was there at the creation, so my opinion should be dispositive,” I’d agree with you that that isn’t helpful (especially when those invoking that authority then turn around and leave).  However, if the “authority” is the principles of open source as articulated by the OSD, then that seems to me to be absolutely appropriate to appeal to that.  I’d also submit that those that believe the OSD is outdated or must be changed bear the burden of establishing that that is the case.  It seems like a lot of the commentary is to the contrary, and the Board election results may bear that out (with the caveat that I think you don’t think the way the Board elections are run is a good representation of the constituency for OSI).

 

FWIW, I’ve found some of the arguments on *both* sides to be fairly unhelpful and needlessly confrontational.  Using “evil” to identify activities, arguing that certain people ought to not have human rights applied to them, does not a compelling case make. At least to me.

 

Regardless of whether licenses are the right place for this effort (and I think there's agreement on both sides of this issue that they might not be), it is important to allow this experimentation to happen (and its best if it happens in a controlled way). And it is just as important for experts to reconsider their positions in light of new propositions or new thinking from non-experts in the field, even if they end-up making the same conclusions. This is the only way to create community-wide consensus around these issues and avoid infighting.

 

Tobie, I’m curious about your reaction to this: https://where.coraline.codes/blog/ethical-source-osi-elections/ Your name is being invoked here as one of two ethical source candidate for the just-completed Board election which – if your votes were combined – would have come in, well, 4th (so, nudging you collectively ahead of the “clarification of the processes” candidate who actually came in 4th).  I took your candidacy of more directed to the way in which the Board was composed and constituted. Do you believe your positions are being fairly reported?

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/attachments/20200317/02e5f267/attachment.html>