[License-review] For Approval: Convertible Free Software License, Version 1.1 (C-FSL v1.1)

[Elmar Stellnberger]

It would have been nice to have a comment by the OSI board as I believe 
that at least some of the critics does not meet the point as it seems to 
be merely based on the comments of others and not on the license itself.

 >> Concerning the license I am not sure on what to change. I do not 
believe that the original authors can exercise control about the product 
in any way except that they have the right to publish a re-licensed 
version of the code.

 > I don't see that as a difficult issue. It gets to the heart of the 
viral side of open source: All contributions are available to all people 
at all times.

The lawyer I am about to hire does not see it as obstacle that the 
original authors retain the right to re-license though this was 
criticized as well. It would have been nice if OSI could confirm at 
least on this issue. I believe the other things will be fixed soon.

My second question would be how much time do I have to submit a 
redrafted version.

Regards,
Elmar



On 10.12.18 11:50, Simon Phipps wrote:
> Hi Elmar,
> 
> That's not going to happen. OSI's Board does not give legal advice, 
> practice law or design licenses. We were recommended to reject your 
> license following review by the community on this list, but as there 
> seemed to be plenty of comment to you on the mailing list on how you 
> might improve your license we opted to withhold approval instead (under 
> the clarified process) so you could act on it if you wanted to. You do 
> not have to do so if you don't want to.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Simon
> (in role as OSI President)
> 
> On Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 8:58 AM Elmar Stellnberger <estellnb at elstel.org 
> <mailto:estellnb at elstel.org>> wrote:
> 
>     Before I can buy a lawyer to rework the license I would need an
>     agreement with OSI on what needs to change about the license.
> 
>     On 07.12.18 07:15, Richard Fontana wrote:
>      > In my most recent License Committee Report I recommended that the OSI
>      > reject the Convertible Free Software License.
>      >
>      > Subsequently, however, at its November board meeting, the OSI decided
>      > to withhold approval of the Convertible Free Software License,
>     pending
>      > submission of a redrafted version.
>      >
>      > Richard
>      >
>      > On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 3:58 AM Elmar Stellnberger
>     <estellnb at elstel.org <mailto:estellnb at elstel.org>> wrote:
>      >>
>      >> Full Name: Convertible Free Software License Version 1.1
>      >> Short Identifier: C-FSL v1.1
>      >> URL: https://www.elstel.org/license/C-FSL-v1.1.txt
>      >>
>      >> Rationale and Distinguish:
>      >> While the BSD license allows the whole world to re-license and while
>      >> re-licensing is virtually impossible with GPL since every
>     contributor
>      >> would need to consent the C-FSL license goes a practical
>     intermediate
>      >> way restricting the right to re-license to a group called the
>     original
>      >> authors. That way open source developers are not excluded from
>     making
>      >> business with others who want to base a proprietary product on
>     the given
>      >> piece of open source software.
>      >>
>      >> Proliferation Category & Legal Review:
>      >> Other/Miscellaneous
>      >> A lawyer from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency, USA) has
>     already
>      >> checked C-FSL for its proliferation properties. He has found the
>     license
>      >> to be compatible with other open source licenses. He decided
>     that C-FSL
>      >> can be used together with the CC0 license in the FDtool (functional
>      >> dependency mining tool) project.
>      >>
>      >> list of software which uses C-FSL v1.1.:
>      >> qcoan: https://www.elstel.org/coan
>      >> xchroot, confinedrv, bundsteg, debcheckroot, dbschemacmd: also
>     found at
>      >> www.elstel.org <http://www.elstel.org>
>      >>
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> 
> -- 
> Simon Phipps/, President, The Open Source Initiative/
> +44 238 098 7027or +1 415 683 7660 : www.opensource.org 
> <http://www.opensource.org>
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