[License-review] The Better Attribution License.

[McCoy Smith]

I don't see either in the prior submission or here that you answered all 
the questions that's required for a new license submission:

https://opensource.org/licenses/review-process

[speaking in personal capacity and not as member of the Board]

The Artistic Licenses (particularly 1.0) are notoriously difficult to 
parse (see here:https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/License:Artistic-1.0 ) so 
I suppose this license is an improvement over those licenses, although I 
find there is still a lot of ambiguous or poor wording in this license 
("undue hassle" "self-perceived optimizations"). I also do not see what 
the value is of requiring the provision of the source for both the 
Standard and Modified versions upon distribution of modified executables 
(the modified source seems enough).

In general, I see this as a slight improvement over a couple of poorly 
written (and not particularly popular anymore, I think) licenses, but 
wonder what value it provides over other, clearer, copyleft licenses. 
And given this is greenfield with no (as yet) identified project 
associated with it, what is the demand for this license?

On 5/8/2025 10:53 PM, Lucy Ada Randall via License-review wrote:
> The Better Attribution License, previously named the Berkeley Artistic 
> License, also knowable as the BAL is a simple to read, copyleft 
> license which is intended to allow for better attribution of code in 
> cases where GIT or other version control history is unavailable, e.g. 
> cases in which the source code of the software is only available as a 
> tar ball. While I was editing my quickly written first draft of the 
> new “modified version of the license” clause, I additionally decided 
> that providing a method for creating variants of this license might be 
> a good idea. The base version of the license is intended to be copyleft.
>
> The full text of the strong copyleft version of the license is 
> available below:
>
> The Better Attribution License
> I: Metadata: Please see the Metadata file for up-to-date metadata for 
> this project. This is only the initial metadata as of the introduction 
> of this license.
> Project:(project name here)
> Project Developer:(developer or team name here)
> Contributors: (list of contributors and contributions separated by 
> semicolons, if applicable.)
>
> II: Definitions
> Standard Version: The project which is the basis for modified 
> versions, also known as upstream.
> Modified Versions: Partial or whole versions of the source code 
> distributed by the project that have been modified, downstream.
> The Software refers to the project, which is a collection of files 
> distributed by the Project Developer, the "Standard Version", and 
> derivatives of that collection of files created through modification 
> of the source code, the "Modified Version". Additionally
>
> III: License Terms
> 1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of 
> the Standard Version of this Software without restriction, provided 
> that you duplicate all of the original copyright notices, this license 
> (including the Metadata file), and associated disclaimers.
>
> 2. You may apply bug fixes, portability fixes and other modifications 
> from the Project Developer or other developers (including yourself) to 
> enable this software to work with modern tools, new hardware, new 
> operating systems, etc. You may distribute software modified in such a 
> way as the Standard Version, so long as you provide the source code of 
> that modified software free of charge and undue hassle to purchasers 
> or recievers of said modified software.
>
> 3. You may otherwise modify your copy of this Software in any way, 
> including adding features and self-percieved optimizations of the 
> source code, provided that your modifications use this license or you 
> do not distribute the resulting code.
>
> 4. You may choose to add your name to the contributors list within the 
> metadata file, to allow the Project Developer to credit you for your 
> modifications in the Standard Version of the Software.
>
> 5. You may distribute your modified copy of this Software in 
> executable form, provided that you make it clear that your 
> distribution of this code is modified, license your code under a 
> version of this license modified only in the way(s) listed in the 
> following sub-paragraphs, and provide a method to obtain both the 
> source of the Standard Version and the source of your Modified Version 
> free of charge or undue hassle.
>  a. You may modify your license to change the project and project 
> developer, labeling your modified version as a the project, and moving 
> any prior project developer to be the primary Contributor.
>
> 6. You may distribute this Software, with or without fee, provided 
> that you do not advertise the Standard Version of this Software as a 
> product of your own.
>
> 7. Neither the name of the project nor the name, username, handle, 
> etc, of the project developer or contributors may be used to endorse 
> or promote products derived from this software without specific prior 
> written permission.
>
> 8. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL 
> WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED 
> WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 
> AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 
> DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR 
> PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER 
> TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR 
> PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE
>
> _______________________________________________
> The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not 
> necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Communication from 
> the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email 
> address.
>
> License-review mailing list
> License-review at lists.opensource.org
> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-review_lists.opensource.org 
>