[License-review] License Committee Report

[Richard Fontana]

Here is a status update on licenses in review. The previous License
Committee Report [1] is incorporated by reference.

Note that the libpng License version 2.0 [2] has been withdrawn by its
submitter. [3]

I am delighted that Lukas Atkinson has begun to provide the
license-review and license-discuss communities with summaries of
discussion threads. Please see his December 2018 report for
license-review. [4]

The license review process proposed on license-discuss [5] has not yet
been formally adopted, but for now I think we ought to attempt to use
it as a guide for the timing and nature of recommended OSI decision
outcomes on submitted licenses, if only to test its practicality.


Server Side Public License, Version 2

Submission date: 2018-11-21 [6].

Looking at the proposed process, SSPLv2 is “a revised version of a
license that was previously submitted for review”, so a decision was
due on or about 2018-12-21. I think therefore a decision on SSPLv2
ought to be made at the next OSI board meeting (which is my today or
tomorrow, 2019-01-10), which should be to have 30 more days of
discussion, which would then mean another decision is due on or about
2019-01-21. Perhaps what we should aim for is a recommendation from
the License Committee Chair (currently me) on that date for a decision
to be made by the OSI at its next board meeting. (OSI board meetings
are typically held monthly.)

Recommendation: Defer (retroactively) for another 30-day discussion
cycle (from 2018-12-21), since community discussion of conformance of
the license to the OSD remains active.


Convertible Free Software License, Version 1.3

Version (1.1) of this license was previously submitted [7]. The OSI
decided to withhold approval of the license, pending submission of a
redrafted version. The new version, 1.3, was submitted on
2019-01-08. [8]

Recommendation: No action at this time. Under the proposed license
review process, a decision is due on or about 2019-02-08.


Richard


[1] https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2018-December/003869.html

[2] https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2018-November/003791.html

[3] https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2018-December/003874.html

[4] https://opensource.org/LicenseReview122018

[5] https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2018-December/020157.html

[6] https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2018-November/003836.html

[7] https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2018-September/003506.html

[8] http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2019-January/003891.html