[License-review] For Approval: OpenMDW License Agreement, versions 1.1 (OpenMDW-1.1)

[Michael Dolan]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 5:06 PM Richard Fontana via License-review <
license-review at lists.opensource.org> wrote:

>
> Yes. Incidentally, the OSI should bear in mind that OpenMDW-1.1
> functions as a "plain old software license" because it is designed in
> part to be used for software. I might view it somewhat differently if
> it was presented as, say, a "weights license" only (perhaps submitted
> as a special sort of "AI license" under what I gather was contemplated
> when the OSAID was adopted). I don't think the OSI should be
> classifying this as an "AI license" and adopting some new, presumably
> looser, standard of approval for it based on that classification. It
> is by design not a license just for models in a narrow sense, it is a
> license for code as well as other stuff. If it is approved, someone
> could conceivably use it in a completely non-AI-related context
> involving just code.
>

Richard, this is a good point, and I'd like to expand on it a bit.
OpenMDW-1.1 was submitted for review as a software license, under the same
standard as any other license OSI has reviewed. We are not asking for an
AI-specific classification or a looser OSD interpretation. Your observation
about non-AI reuse is correct and by design: inference code, preprocessing
tools, or other software licensed under OpenMDW-1.1 as part of one release
can be extracted and reused by developers with entirely different model
weights that are under other licenses, or with no model at all. Each
component published under the license carries the OpenMDW grant, and the
license needs to work as a plain software license in that very scenario.

Mike
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