License committee report for January 2008

Russ Nelson nelson at crynwr.com
Sun Jan 27 18:40:36 UTC 2008


Dag-Erling Smorgrav writes:
 > Russ Nelson <nelson at crynwr.com> writes:
 > > Title: The Simplified BSD License 
 > > Submission:
 > >   http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:13962:200709:epiemomifonkahmoahjh
 > > Comments: The board sent this license back to the submittor because
 > >   the license is identical to the FreeBSD license, yet the FreeBSD
 > >   license is more well-known.  The submittor has refused to change the
 > >   name of his submission:
 > >   http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:14760:oojmkoabkddapheodgme
 > 
 > This is a gross misrepresentation of events,

Oh?  Let's go through what I said, sentence by sentence, compare it
against the facts, and see who has a better grasp on reality.  Before
we get too far, may I recommend that you polish your mirror, because
you'll be looking at yourself before long.

"The board sent this license back to the submittor because"
The minutes haven't been published yet, but any board member or
observer can verify what we took that action.

"the license is identical to the FreeBSD license,"
wget http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-license.html
wget http://www.des.no/simplified-bsd-license.html
wdiff freebsd-license.html simplified-bsd-license.html

"yet the FreeBSD license is more well-known."
Google reports:
  284 for "simplified BSD license".
9,030 for "freebsd license".

"The submittor has refused to change the name of his submission:"
http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm.cgi?3:14760

 > > Recommend: Modifying the New BSD License template so that the third
 > >   clause is optional.  In this manner, both the FreeBSD license and
 > >   the Dag-Erling's Simplified BSD License will fit into the template
 > >   with no license proliferation problems.

 > and your "recommendation" has not been discussed on the lists.

True.  It's my job to synthesize a compromise position given what
everything has said.  I think, at this point, that nothing would make
you happy, so your happiness is not a concern of mine.  At this point,
it's become an active anti-concern.

 > Perhaps it is time for the board to consider replacing Russ Nelson in
 > this role, as was done for the list moderator role.

Mmmmm, I'm still postmaster, and I still moderate the lists.  We just
decided that Ernie has more patience with morons.

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