[License-review] OSET Foundation

Meeker, Heather J. hmeeker at omm.com
Thu Sep 10 01:59:59 UTC 2015


Nigel, thanks for putting this so succinctly.  That's exactly right.  The long running- dispute between those who prefer GPL3 for all software, and those who prefer to choose other licenses, is a philosophical argument beyond the scope of this list.  The reality is that we live in a world of open source under many licenses, not GPL only.  Our constituency has expressed a preference for a weak copyleft license.  So GPL does not work, period. We will not be responding on this list to any more demands for us to choose GPL.

You correctly observe that the better question is why existing licenses like MPL don't work for us.  We submitted a detailed rationale document.  We have received some good comments on our license, but almost no serious comments on our rationale document.  I have seen postings expressing the opinion that government procurement does not understand or does not really care about the conflicts we have identified in our rationale.   But that is not the same thing as saying our rationale is ill-reasoned.  Those who believe that government should change its procurement regulations to be more friendly to open source have a civic right and duty to engage in the political process to make that happen.  But at this time, we think it is more productive to address the conflict with our license than to deny the conflicts exist.

From: Tzeng, Nigel H. [mailto:Nigel.Tzeng at jhuapl.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2015 1:14 PM
To: Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com<mailto:lrosen at rosenlaw.com>>; 'License submissions for OSI review' <license-review at opensource.org<mailto:license-review at opensource.org>>; 'Gregory Miller' <gmiller at osetfoundation.org<mailto:gmiller at osetfoundation.org>>
Cc: 'Christine Santoro' <csantoro at osetfoundation.org<mailto:csantoro at osetfoundation.org>>; 'CAVO' <cavo at opensource.org<mailto:cavo at opensource.org>>; 'Meegan Gregg' <meegan at osetfoundation.org<mailto:meegan at osetfoundation.org>>; legal at osetfoundation.org<mailto:legal at osetfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: [License-review] OSET Foundation


When did justification for not using GPL suddenly become a litmus test for new license approval?  I didn't get the memo about there being OSD #11 License submitter must provide justification for not using GPLV3 because they are involved in software for specific endeavors Larry thinks is important.

They want a weak copyleft.  GPLV3 isn't one.  What further justification do you need for not using GPLv3?  They don't need to provide a point by point refutation of your memo.  At most it's "tell us why vanilla MPL isn't satisfactory".

From: License-review <license-review-bounces at opensource.org<mailto:license-review-bounces at opensource.org>> on behalf of Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com<mailto:lrosen at rosenlaw.com>>
Reply-To: Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com<mailto:lrosen at rosenlaw.com>>, OSI License Review <license-review at opensource.org<mailto:license-review at opensource.org>>
Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 3:03 PM
To: 'Gregory Miller' <gmiller at osetfoundation.org<mailto:gmiller at osetfoundation.org>>
Cc: OSI License Review <license-review at opensource.org<mailto:license-review at opensource.org>>, 'Christine Santoro' <csantoro at osetfoundation.org<mailto:csantoro at osetfoundation.org>>, 'CAVO' <cavo at opensource.org<mailto:cavo at opensource.org>>, 'Meegan Gregg' <meegan at osetfoundation.org<mailto:meegan at osetfoundation.org>>, "legal at osetfoundation.org<mailto:legal at osetfoundation.org>" <legal at osetfoundation.org<mailto:legal at osetfoundation.org>>
Subject: Re: [License-review] OSET Foundation

Hi Greg,

Valid concerns have been raised here and on license-review@ about OSET's attempt to insert a new license into the existing collection for (what we call) invalid reasons. It does not help to have you point repeatedly to your Rationale document and yet refuse to comment specifically on CAVO's.

What don't you like about GPLv3 for election software?  Please answer specifically.

I can assure you that government agencies acquire and use GPL software every day!

I'm adding license-review@ back to this thread so we can all hear your response. If participants here believe that license-discuss@ is a more appropriate venue for this thread, someone please move it there and cut back the other cc's. Thanks.

/Larry

From: Gregory Miller [mailto:gmiller at osetfoundation.org]
Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2015 11:24 AM
To: Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com<mailto:lrosen at rosenlaw.com>>
Cc: Christine Santoro <csantoro at osetfoundation.org<mailto:csantoro at osetfoundation.org>>; Meeker, Heather J. <hmeeker at omm.com<mailto:hmeeker at omm.com>>; Richard Fontana <fontana at sharpeleven.org<mailto:fontana at sharpeleven.org>>; CAVO <cavo at opensource.org<mailto:cavo at opensource.org>>; Meegan Gregg <meegan at osetfoundation.org<mailto:meegan at osetfoundation.org>>; legal at osetfoundation.org<mailto:legal at osetfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: OSET Foundation

Good Morning Larry-
Running into a busy balance of the day here, but with regard to your question, our position is best laid out in our Rationale document, and our recently updated FAQ, both available at www.osetfoundation.org/public-license<http://www.osetfoundation.org/public-license>.
Thanks very much and have a great day.
Best
Gregory

On Wed, Sep 9, 2015 at 7:53 AM, Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com<mailto:lrosen at rosenlaw.com>> wrote in relevant part:

....- please respond directly to my own rationale memo explaining why GPLv3 is the most appropriate license for elections software. Do you disagree and why?

https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss/2014-November/001580.html

Gregory Miller
Co-Executive Director & Chief Development Officer
OSET Foundation | TrustTheVote Project
www.OSETFoundation.org<http://www.osetfoundation.org/> | www.trustthevote.org<http://www.trustthevote.org/>
Twitter: @TrustTheVote | @OSET
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