We have looked at the open source licenses available hoping to find one that fits our needs. Specifically, we wanted a license that is clear and concise covering the grant and usage of the software. Our desire was not just to create a new license, but to help simplify the licensing process. What we are proposing is not redundancy, but by blending aspects from both of these licenses we think we are adding clarity which is an improvement, at least from our perspective. Our goal is to make it easier for the user to understand the rights being granted, how they can use such rights, and requirements for such usage in distribution.
The opening paragraph in the MIT license clearly sets forth the grant of the license - but isn't so clear on the aspect of redistribution. However, the BSD license, which is less clear in regards to the rights being granted, does a really good job setting forth concise conditions for redistribution. That's why we have utilized these two crucial pieces together. We have tried to create a clear roadmap for users to know what rights they are granted and what they need to do for redistribution. We believe this will be an improvement for the community rather than being merely redundant. John McEntire -----Original Message----- From: David Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 11:40 PM To: John Taylor McEntire; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Discuss: UoI/NCSA Open Source License On Thursday 14 March 2002 01:26 pm, John Taylor McEntire wrote: > Included as text to this e-mail is the University of Illinois/NCSA Open > Source License for your review and consideration as an approved OSI open > source license. This license is a combination of the already-approved > MIT and BSD licenses. However, the combined text is more explicit > regarding the granted rights than either of the MIT or BSD licenses > alone and therefore is easier to understand and more comprehensive. > Thus, there's a reason to use it rather than one of its two > predecessors. I really don't know where to go with this one. I almost feel like I should recommend disapproval solely due to gross redundancy. Is there any possible way you can user either the MIT or the BSD license? -- David Johnson ___________________ http://www.usermode.org pgp public key on website -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
