On Tue, 3 Feb 2026, Christoph Röth via curl-library wrote:
I would like to have the curl license listed with the Open Source Initiative
(OSI) (opensource.org). After going through the approval process, the curl
license will be considered an OSI Approved License. The OSI will thus
confirm that it is an open source license.
Excellent! I mean we all knew it already, but getting it publicly confirmed
like that feels good and appropriate. Thanks for doing this.
The first point is permission to have the curl license officially listed at
Open Source Initiative (OSI). Can someone grant me official permission?
I suppose that should be me, and yes you have my permission to have it listed
by the Open Source Initiative. I think that is in everyone's best interest.
I would like to address the second point here based on the feedback from my
initial contact with the OSI. The curl project itself refers to the SPDX
listing, where curl is listed as a standalone license.
Yes, since SPDX added it as its own license identifier that seems to be the
most accurate SPDX name to use.
I would like to ask whether there are plans to change the license to a full
MIT license.
There are no such plans and I don't think anyone has asked us to in the last
twenty years.
- we have used this license for a long time by now
- it does not seem to hamper adoption or be a problem to users nor
contributors
- changing the license is work we can avoid
- changing the license causes ripple effects everywhere, which I think we
should only trigger if it is important
--
/ daniel.haxx.se || https://rock-solid.curl.dev
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