F. In an effort to track usage and maintain accurate records of the
Subject Software, each Recipient, upon receipt of the Subject
Software, is requested to register with NASA by visiting the following
website: ______________________________.
Note that each recipient is requested to register, not merely each recipient who downloads the software directly from NASA. If this were a requirement rather than a request, then I think the license would not be OSD-compliant.
I have no personal problem with this. I'm sure NASA's reasons for gathering user information are totally benign, and that if their people can show that many individuals and companies benefit from thei work, it will help them get scarce budget dollars from Congress.
But I don't think this really belongs in the license itself, any more than a request for all users of your software to (voluntarily) smile at their neighbor once a day, even though it certainly would be nice if we all smiled at each other a little more.
I like licenses to be as simple and clear as possible. Therefore, I ask NASA, please, to consider removing the "tracking" clause from the license itself and make the request elsewhere. Another person thought it should be in the "readme" file. I agree. The documentation is probably the best place for this request.
On the indemnification clause... Isn't a simple "no warrenty" disclaimer of liability enough? I'll defer to Larry and the other lawyers as to whether or not this clause has anything to do with the license's OSI-worthiness, but in the interests of simplification I would personally rather see it removed.
- Robin 'Roblimo' Miller U.S. Taxpayer
-- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
