[License-discuss] Total Reciprocity Public License (TRPL v1.0)

Wed Dec 3 18:22:22 UTC 2025

How so? It's easy to say that any limitation is a use restriction - 
saying that one has to include a copy of the license discriminates 
against those who don't want to. So can you elaborate how this 
restriction on output discriminates against a field of endeavor or a 
person or group?

Pam

Pamela S. Chestek
Chestek Legal
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On 12/3/2025 8:41 AM, Bruce Perens via License-discuss wrote:
> The functional output restrictionn would keep it from being an Open 
> Source license. It's pretty clearly a use restriction.
>
> Bruce Perens K6BP
>
> On Wed, Dec 3, 2025, 08:23 Gil Yehuda <tenorgil at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     Jay,
>     If you intend to ask for critique, there’s quite a bit — from
>     nitpicking details to fundamental flaws. I’ll list some of the
>     apparent ones below as I read the license text.
>     If you intend to suggest this as a new open source license that
>     would meet the OSD, I don’t think this will do.
>
>     As I read the license:
>
>       * Preamble: Licenses are documents that grant rights under
>         conditions. This text suggests that the license can guarantee
>         freedom, indeed “radical” freedom (I’m not sure of the
>         difference) in software architecture (not just code?).
>         Licenses should articulate the rights they grant and the
>         conditions under which those rights are granted. Preambles are
>         great to convey intent which helps when trying to interpret
>         ambiguity; but they also reveal cases where the intent is to
>         express a wish for how things ought to be in the world. That’s
>         better expressed in a manifesto, not a legal document.
>       * “Intimate Communication” is one of my favorite terms found in
>         software licenses since it makes people think we’re also
>         dabbling in marriage counseling. My constructive comment here
>         is that when licenses say “This includes, but is not limited
>         to” that automatically creates a speed bump where a reader
>         (and their lawyer) have to imagine if this includes something
>         surprisingly not intended. It creates a very broad scope — and
>         that’s going to warn me to stay away from using code under
>         this license because I might intent to comply only to learn
>         that the scope was even broader than assumed.
>       * “Content Output” is defined with two terms “human consumption
>         or data storage” — I understand the first to exclude non-human
>         uses and the second to exclude the use of data that is not
>         stored. I note this because of the next phrase...
>       * “Deployment” is defined with a curious inclusion of the term
>         “internally or externally” which I assume means in the context
>         of a corporation (not of “human consumption” in the above
>         clause — right?!) If so, then “internally” suggests that if I
>         deploy my application onto my work computer for use by my work
>         colleagues, then the copyright license considers this to be
>         “deployment’ subject to copyright protection. I do not believe
>         that would hold up in the current interpretation of copyright
>         laws.
>       * “Consequently” (line 40) is where this becomes quite
>         challenging. If I create a system with code licensed under
>         TRPL 1.0 that shares data with any proprietary software to
>         achieve a unified functional goal — this license declares that
>         the proprietary software becomes part of a "Combined Work”
>         that I must release its source code under the terms of this
>         license. But what if that proprietary software is not mine to
>         release? I might not even have the source code? Let’s say I
>         license the proprietary edition of Postman and use it to make
>         an API call to software under TRPL 1.0 — internally (to my
>         corporation, not in my body). I now have to acquire and
>         release Postman’s proprietary source code under the TRPL 1.0
>         license? How would I go about doing that? Since there’s no
>         definition of “release” here, can I assume that if I deploy
>         internally, then I can release internally too? You see that
>         would not help promote your intent. This section of the
>         license seems to convey how you wish software would work — but
>         it does not clarify how I, a potential user of software
>         licensed under this license, needs to do to make the world
>         work that way.
>
>
>     I’m concerned there is little practical use of this license since
>     any software licensed this way, no matter how appealing that
>     software may be, is automatically going to pose a threat to the
>     rest of my software. Given that software is subject to copyright,
>     and that as a user of software, I seek to honor other people’s
>     copyrights, this license would make it nearly impossible to do so.
>     I’d always have to limit my use of this software to ensure I don’t
>     inadvertently infringe other people’s rights.
>
>     Rather than a license, maybe we can collectively imagine what the
>     past 40-50 years of technology would have been like had there been
>     no copyright on source code. I imagine it would be different —
>     better in some ways, worse in others. This license appears to
>     invoke that imagination. But since source code is subject to
>     copyright laws, I think the licenses should do their best to work
>     within that context, granting rights that the grantor wishes to
>     grant, and imposing conditions that the users of the software wish
>     to, and can, comply with. This text falls short on the second
>     part, at least for me.
>
>     Gil
>
>
>
>>     On Dec 3, 2025, at 12:59 AM, Jay Patel <jaypatel.ani at gmail.com>
>>     wrote:
>>
>>     I am reaching out to community to collect feedback on the
>>     proposed license.
>>
>>     Here is text of License:
>>
>>     https://github.com/trplfoundation/trpl-license/blob/main/LICENSE
>>
>>     Thanks,
>>
>>     Jay
>>
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