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

[Kyle Mitchell]

On 2018-09-28 16:09, John Cowan wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 2:41 PM Kyle Mitchell <kyle at kemitchell.com> wrote:
>
> Declaring approved licenses non-precedential would reject
> > the common-law mechanism by which US law develops, which you
> > describe.  That system relies on precedent, not just to
> > decide new cases that retread old, but also novel cases, by
> > analogy and abstracting out rules.
> >
>
> Stare decisis has never meant a mechanical adherence to precedent,
> nor a requirement that precedent overrule reason, justice, and common sense.

Straw Man.  I've never argued for slavish adherence to
precedent.  Only that the logic of prior license approvals
be acknowledged, choices to reject them now be made
explicit, and the reasons be made transparent.

If you'd like a concrete proposal, take the offending
licenses off the list, or place them in a new, deprecated
subcategory, and publish a rationale for doing so.  Or do
these things preliminarily, invite comment, and reassess.

To continue the analogy:  Old cases aren't overruled
silently, but by new, published decisions accompanied by
opinions.  Invalidated records get annotated as such. And
overruling opinions are themselves subject to
reconsideration.  In every case, reconsideration means not
just revisiting rationale, but the extent to which others
have relied and built upon on the outcome.

Speaking now a little closer to my own interest:  If you
throw the small-business reciprocal license movement circa
'02 off the boat, own up to that decision.

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