For Approval: Transitive Grace Period Public Licence, v1.0

[Russ Nelson]

Zooko, as you write your response, please take this email seriously.
As far as I know, the only reason why you say a waiver doesn't work
for you is because you believe that the TGPPL needs to be transitive.
And yet I see no way for the transitive nature to work as you wish.
Any licensor can sabotage your desire for transitiveness by publishing
the software under the OSL on the last day of his proprietary license
period.

When legislation doesn't make you happy, look for a natural law which
comes with its own consequences.  E.g. legislation can say anything
it wants about the squaring the circle, but you still can't do it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill

Russ Nelson writes:
 > Chris Zumbrunn writes:
 >  > No, because for the first twelve month the license behaves like a  
 >  > permissive open source license.
 > 
 > Not.  At.  All.  Let's say that I get a copy of some TGPPL code.  I
 > immediately release it under the OSL.  What happens to that code
 > release in a year?  I can think of two possibilities:
 > 
 >   1) The OSL remains in force, in which case, the TGPPL is really the
 > GPPL; its transitive nature being completely lost.  Note that I could
 > also do this on day 364 of my 12 months.
 > 
 >   2) The OSL expires, except that the OSL says it doesn't expire as
 > long as the copyright remains in force.  That means that the code was
 > never *really* licensed under the OSL, at which point the judge would
 > throw up his hands and say "You're all completely insane; get out of
 > my courtroom."
 > 
 > Either way, very bad things happen.
 > 
 > -- 
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