[License-review] For Approval: Rewrite of License Zero Reciprocal Public License

[Kyle Mitchell]

Bruce,

Lawyer time is worth more than yours in just one, very
narrow manner of speaking.

You want to run me off. Perhaps you're entitled to. I have
no idea. I have had as many words on this process, on and
off this list, from people who apparently ought to know, as
on the license. It's been like Calvinball. And yes, perhaps
to your point, if the webmaster had put the rules I'm given
to understand today on /approval last quarter, I wouldn't
have signed up to play.

I'm tired, too. But I'm going to answer your latest reading
of OSD, your bad metaphor, put the "viral license" FUD
recently exhumed back in its grave. I want a full record
here, and I'm as energetic as ever for the question. Anyone
who wants can engage me on it, here or privately. But I'm
not going to exert myself on prior pace to keep this process
turning over. Looking back to Richard's summaries, just two
weeks ago, it's clear we've been southbound since.

Why did I bother? Because when I turn away from this
process, I will see members of the community call L0-R
software open source. I will see them talk about selling
exceptions as an approach to open source sustainability.
Hell, they said that about the _noncommercial_ license, for
which I took great pains to project otherwise. But when I
hear about L0-R, I am also supposed to chide that OSI did
not approve. First they'll ask who OSI is. If we get past
that, they'll ask why.

These people grew up doing software on the Web, as I did. If
I tell them to read between OSD's lines in a tortured,
selective way, they'll read it for themselves. If I appeal
to authority, they'll demand reasons. If I tell them it was
the default outcome of a process, different from what's
described online, applying a definition held back in
self-empowering vagueness, and also unenumerated policies,
they'll wonder if I really came up in their community at
all. That's not how their community works, and they'll be
indignant to hear that's how it's defined. I've had a few of
these conversations already.

I bothered because I put myself between. I'm the one in my
peer group who knew of, and cared about, OSI approval. L0-R
came out of conversations with coder friends, but none of
them asked me to bring it here. Having done so, I wanted to
bring back something definitive, that would hold up on both
sides, be it good news or bad.

I took the time, and now that you mention it, I'll never see
it paid, either. But I see time on interesting community
matters as a privilege to spend, not any loss to measure up
and account for. Not everyone who can gets to do this.

And yes, coffee when you can.

Best,

K

-- 
Kyle Mitchell, attorney // Oakland // (510) 712 - 0933