[License-review] For Approval – CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2– Strongly Reciprocal (SPDX: CERN-OHL-S-2.0); CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2– Weakly Reciprocal (SPDX: CERN-OHL-W-2.0); CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2– Permissive (SPDX: CERN-OHL-P-2.0)

[Kevin P. Fleming]

On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 9:43 PM Pamela Chestek <pamela at chesteklegal.com> wrote:
> And the question more for everyone, if I've interpreted the license correctly, does this violate OSD 9, "License Must Not Restrict Other Software"? The explanatory text of OSD 9 is "The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software." Is saying that the compiler has to be under the CERN-OHL-S license an impermissible restriction under OSD 9? Is the compiler "other software" "along with" the CERN-OHL-S licensed software that is being improperly restricted?

That's an interesting question indeed; I cannot see why the authors of
the explanatory text for OSD9 would have intentionally allowed
restrictions on software that is *not* distributed along with the
licensed software.

Would it be acceptable for a license to require that all other
software used in a licensee's business or home be used under the terms
of a specific license?

I think it's reasonable to treat OSD9 exactly as written, as broadly
as it can be applied, in spite of the explanatory text. As you've
already noted in the earlier parts of this email, copyright law most
likely doesn't provide any mechanism for the license to restrict other
software.