Re: [License-discuss] Copyright Free Software Foundation, but license not GPL

2013-04-17 Thread Bruce Perens
Karl, Robin means that the work is dedicated to FSF and placed under a BSD or MIT license. These are compatible with the GPL and FSF is fine with it. Thanks Bruce On 4/17/2013 10:04 AM, Karl Fogel wrote: Robin Winning robin.winn...@cyaninc.com writes: I am a contracts manager at

Re: [License-discuss] what would de-listing of licenses look like?

2013-03-07 Thread Bruce Perens
for the poor Open Source developer is exactly what I'd like to fix. And yet the Artistic 1.0 is not the one I thought of first upon seeing this discussion in progress. We have much worse. Thanks Bruce John Cowan co...@mercury.ccil.org wrote: Bruce Perens scripsit: 1. They are ambiguous

Re: [License-discuss] what would de-listing of licenses look like?

2013-03-07 Thread Bruce Perens
We appreciate what we got. But my point is that maybe with a well written license Victoria Hall would have finished the case on her own in the lower court. Lawrence Rosen lro...@rosenlaw.com wrote: I note that the plaintiff in the Jacobsen v Katzer case won on appeal to the CAFC. So reading

Re: [License-discuss] what would de-listing of licenses look like?

2013-03-06 Thread Bruce Perens
The justification for de-listing presently accepted licenses is that: 1. They are ambiguous or likely to perform in court in unexpected ways, should they ever be litigated. And thus they are harmful to their users. De-listing is a prompt to the organization that originally created the license

Re: [License-discuss] what would de-listing of licenses look like?

2013-03-06 Thread Bruce Perens
is exactly what I'd like to fix. And yet the Artistic 1.0 is not the one I thought of first upon seeing this discussion in progress. We have much worse. Thanks Bruce John Cowan co...@mercury.ccil.org wrote: Bruce Perens scripsit: And yet the Artistic License 1.0, which is riddled with ambiguities

Re: [License-discuss] what would de-listing of licenses look like?

2013-03-06 Thread Bruce Perens
at 10:15 PM, John Cowan co...@mercury.ccil.org wrote: Bruce Perens scripsit: So, what the Artistic License 1.0 made much more difficult for the poor Open Source developer is exactly what I'd like to fix. And yet the Artistic 1.0 is not the one I thought of first upon seeing this discussion

Re: [License-discuss] List moderation and CoC enforcement [was Re: proposal for revising (and making relevant) the code of conduct]

2013-01-05 Thread Bruce Perens
* *On-list*: discussing conduct on-list, either as part of another message or as a standalone thread, is always acceptable. Pretty often this sort of discussion has triggered an instant flame-fest. And I have to agree with John. If there's a breach of civility, direct confrontation is unlikely

Re: [License-discuss] License which requires watermarking? (Attribution Provision)

2013-01-01 Thread Bruce Perens
On 01/01/2013 02:08 PM, Ken Arromdee wrote: Some people use ordinary GPL on libraries with the intent of crippling competing commercial reuse (since any competitors have to release their source and competitors wouldn't want to do that). Is the GPL also considered unfree when applied to

Re: [License-discuss] License which requires watermarking? (Attribution Provision)

2013-01-01 Thread Bruce Perens
Would that we all had infinite budgets for going to court :-) But short of having them, many businesses choose, quite sensibly, to err on the conservative side of this sort of issue and will honor the license whether or not a court would make them do so. This will also get them through an MA

Re: [License-discuss] plain text license versions?

2012-09-10 Thread Bruce Perens
On 09/10/2012 01:38 PM, Rick Moen wrote: Quoting Karl Fogel (kfo...@red-bean.com): It's better to question reasoning than motivations, on this list and probably most others. Karl, I question why you didn't call a halt when the discussion was obviously becoming a testosterone contest past

Re: [License-discuss] plain text license versions?

2012-09-07 Thread Bruce Perens
On 09/07/2012 11:24 AM, Rick Moen wrote: I don't think you are approaching this discussion with a serious attitude, attention to the subject, and/or a sense of perspective. Is this really a serious discussion? It sounds to me more like a contest of how many silly things some of us can get

[License-discuss] licenses and software in books

2012-09-06 Thread Bruce Perens
So, I have 24 titles in my old book series that have mostly dealt with this issue. Conveying the license text in print form is not an odious requirement. There are 200 to 400 pages of tutorial material, to dedicate two to a small-print rendition of GPL is no hardship. Nobody ever requested

Re: [License-discuss] plain text license versions?

2012-09-06 Thread Bruce Perens
On 09/06/2012 03:07 PM, Luis Villa wrote: Custom waivers (particularly for something trivial like this) are just another form of the same mess. Posit that I am creating a version of the old Lyons Unix book, containing the Linux source code. How many copyright holders must grant me a waiver? Is

Re: [License-discuss] plain text license versions?

2012-09-06 Thread Bruce Perens
Larry wrote: I think it would be FAR more useful to have a simple license statement in the source tree of each program that points to the OFFICIAL version of that license on the OSI website. You are very optimistic regarding the longevity of OSI. attachment: bruce.vcf smime.p7s Description:

Re: [License-discuss] relationship between opensource code and the copyrighted works it produces?

2012-09-05 Thread Bruce Perens
On 09/05/2012 08:19 AM, Karl Fogel wrote: My understanding (I am not a lawyer) is that copyright only applies to creative works -- specifically, to works resulting from human creativity, or to the portion of a work that results from human creativity. This is why, for example, the information

Re: [License-discuss] plain text license versions?

2012-09-05 Thread Bruce Perens
Arguing the merit of plain text vs. HTML is just Lilliput v. Blefuscu. Provide both, for different reasons. Plain-text is a better source for cut-and-paste operations. In general plain text divides the actual license text from any attached commentary, making it clear which is which. There is

Re: [License-discuss] OSI approved license without original license and reproduction of notices required in redistributions?

2012-07-16 Thread Bruce Perens
There are two different fundamental forms of copyright regime. One is based upon the right to copy, and the other is based upon the moral rights of authors. A number of European nations, for example, are moral rights regimes, while the U.S. is based upon the right to copy. However, even in

Re: [License-discuss] Is it possible to use code or knowledge from Manuals/Wiki/Blog/Resonal pages?

2012-07-10 Thread Bruce Perens
For my legal protection, don't treat this information as if it came from an attorney 'cause I'm not one. There are various free attorneys who help Open Source projects, you can ask them if necessary. On 07/10/2012 06:30 AM, Oleksandr Gavenko wrote: Is it possible use knowledge I get form

Re: [License-discuss] GPL linking exceptions

2012-07-05 Thread Bruce Perens
On 07/05/2012 06:30 PM, Chris Travers wrote: Generally RMS seems to think this is not permissible, and most other people outside the FSF don't listen. It is not permissible to modify the GPL text directly. That restriction has teeth. However, I can't think of a legal mechanism that could be

Re: [License-discuss] proposal to revise and slightly reorganize the OSI licensing pages

2012-06-11 Thread Bruce Perens
On 06/11/2012 12:18 AM, Henrik Ingo wrote: To be clear, NuSphere did not embed MySQL in their product, rather they embedded closed source components into MySQL Per Eben's testimony, the Gemini storage engine, using the MySQL API for storage engines. Which would be a funny relevation after a

Re: [License-discuss] proposal to revise and slightly reorganize the OSI licensing pages

2012-06-11 Thread Bruce Perens
On 06/11/2012 12:52 AM, Rick Moen wrote: {scratches head} I think you must somehow be massively misreading what I said. Perhaps you thought I'd expressed a view about using an API (somehow) creating a derivative work? I didn't say anything of the sort. It's regarding your statement: it

Re: [License-discuss] proposal to revise and slightly reorganize the OSI licensing pages

2012-06-10 Thread Bruce Perens
On 06/09/2012 01:53 AM, Rick Moen wrote: Read caselaw. I'm done. I'm glad Rick's done. There is a good chance that you, not Rick, are right. Recent case law is that APIs are bright lines between separate works and that connections across APIs do not create derivative works. And this is

Re: [License-discuss] license for code used for scientific results?

2012-04-30 Thread Bruce Perens
On 04/30/2012 08:36 AM, Kevin Hunter wrote: I'm not looking for responses along the lines of you can't enforce it so ignore it. I'm very specifically focused on the licensing aspect. Hi Kevin, People who understand what they're doing won't generally write a license that can't be enforced

Re: [License-discuss] license for code used for scientific results?

2012-04-30 Thread Bruce Perens
On 04/30/2012 10:13 AM, John Cowan wrote: Conditional copyright licenses are most closely analogous to conditional licenses to enter land :-) Well, this is more than a bit of a stretch, but I can argue it this way if you like. Of course, in civil law land, licenses are contracts, period.

Re: [License-discuss] license for code used for scientific results?

2012-04-30 Thread Bruce Perens
Kevin, If you want to make everything fit in the framework of Free Software, you can get a lawyer for free through the Software Freedom Conservancy, and there is a well-established history of them going to court for their clients. But you have to fit in their parameters of Free Software.

Re: [License-discuss] Is the old style MIT license a Free Software license

2012-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
On 03/13/2012 12:31 PM, Karl Fogel wrote: I believe the without fee here refers to payment to the original licensor Yes. The statement is permission [to exercise a number of rights] is hereby granted without fee. If it were permission [to exercise a number of rights] without fee is hereby

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC0 incompliant with OSD on patents, [was: MXM compared to CC0 ]

2012-03-09 Thread Bruce Perens
On 03/09/2012 11:41 AM, Rick Moen wrote: As an afterthought, OSI _might_ decide to adopt a policy that all new licences should at least not disclaim/waive any implicit patent waiver that might be created against patents held by licensor (estoppel defence) -- or establish some other minimum

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC0 incompliant with OSD on patents, [was: MXM compared to CC0 ]

2012-03-08 Thread Bruce Perens
On 03/08/2012 12:51 PM, Rick Moen wrote: the notion that anyone who thinks new licences ought to address patent issues in some way is logically obliged to try to revoke BSD licence's OSI Certified status (or formally deprecate the licence) is absurd, and we could have done without those and

[License-discuss] combining GPL and proprietary software - was: CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-03-02 Thread Bruce Perens
On 03/01/2012 11:57 PM, Chris Travers wrote: Ok, so part of avoiding lawsuits is to avoid areas where folks think they can sue about. Not quite, because neophytes think they can sue about anything. Sometimes lawyers cooperate in this, because they think the victim will settle or otherwise

[License-discuss] due diligence - was: CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-03-02 Thread Bruce Perens
It is indeed the case that the failures I see are in companies rather than among charity developers. However, it's a stretch to state that they already pay for lawyers! I sometimes get paid to read their depositions and explain them to the judge. Invariably, the failure is by an engineer or

Re: [License-discuss] combining GPL and proprietary software - was: CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-03-02 Thread Bruce Perens
On 03/02/2012 10:38 AM, Chad Perrin wrote: On the other hand, a fully-written pleading for a Rule 11 sanction is beyond the means of someone who cannot afford a competent attorney. Since Olson was a Free Software developer, EFF provided his attorney pro-bono. Thanks Bruce attachment:

Re: [License-discuss] Linking question

2012-03-02 Thread Bruce Perens
Larry Rosen wrote: Is anything else required under the GPL or by the Busybox copyright owners? Specifically, is any of my client's proprietary software subject to disclosure? Must my client help anyone -- through product documentation or the disclosure of his proprietary code that he has

Re: [License-discuss] combining GPL and proprietary software - was: CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-03-02 Thread Bruce Perens
On 03/02/2012 11:34 AM, Chad Perrin wrote: Something tells me it is not reasonable to just always expect that writing open source code guarantees the EFF's help. Sure. But folks who have asked me for help got me free, and I've sometimes found them an attorney too. This is something I would

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-03-01 Thread Bruce Perens
The fact that we have not resolved some questions doesn't mean that we don't have /any/ bright lines. I have previously published guidelines that would keep you far from any fuzzy issues, while allowing you to build whatever you wish. On 03/01/2012 07:42 PM, John Cowan wrote: Which is as much

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-03-01 Thread Bruce Perens
On 03/01/2012 08:02 PM, Chris Travers wrote: How do I know if this license applies? Just assume it does, because you don't really have to decide this question to be safe. attachment: bruce.vcf smime.p7s Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-03-01 Thread Bruce Perens
On 03/01/2012 08:32 PM, Chris Travers wrote: I am not at all sure that line works once you get into trying to bridge GPL'd and proprietary apps Read http://www.datamation.com/osrc/article.php/3801396/Bruce-Perens-Combining-GPL-and-Proprietary-Software.htm Does it matter how I do this? Very

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-02-27 Thread Bruce Perens
On 02/27/2012 12:57 AM, David Woolley wrote: The software analogy is flawed in that software has to be understood by a machine and is written in a language with very precisely defined semantics. Legal documents are written to be interpreted by a human and, unfortunately, legal language is not

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-02-26 Thread Bruce Perens
On 02/26/2012 02:03 PM, Chad Perrin wrote: Explain to me how wanting to enforce a crapton of additional terms is realism instead of a more-restrictive license. When the terms are grants, or specifications of what must be granted in derivative works. attachment: bruce.vcf smime.p7s

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-02-26 Thread Bruce Perens
On 02/26/2012 02:31 PM, David Woolley wrote: The reality is that the people who have to comply with licences are not professional lawyers. This is always in my thoughts when considering any Open Source license. We can fail these people in two ways: 1. Provide them with a license that

Re: [License-discuss] What would be necessary to consider the unlicense?

2012-02-26 Thread Bruce Perens
On 02/26/2012 04:05 PM, Clark C. Evans wrote: If it is a broken license, perhaps those with legal expertise might provide suggestions to fix it? I am having trouble finding a benefit that would come from fixing it, that we don't already have from short-and-sweet licenses like BSD. What you

Re: [License-discuss] What would be necessary to consider the unlicense?

2012-02-26 Thread Bruce Perens
On 02/26/2012 05:50 PM, Clark C. Evans wrote: So, what makes unlicense and these public domain statements alluring is that they serve as vehicles for their authors make a statement about public policy. Yes, but the sentiment is so poorly directed that it's the one from /Henry VI. /For all of

Re: [License-discuss] [License-review] CC withdrawl of CC0 from OSI process

2012-02-26 Thread Bruce Perens
On 02/26/2012 09:00 PM, Chad Perrin wrote: I suspect a better approach to understandable, legally well-formed license production might be to get someone who wants a very simple license to write it, and only *then* get the lawyers involved. While you're at it, be prepared to make the lawyers

Re: [License-discuss] Reply to various recent postings on the crayon license issue

2011-12-22 Thread Bruce Perens
On 12/20/2011 11:41 AM, Richard Fontana wrote: Can you tell me how many licenses are in Fedora? If it's 300, it's something of a self-created problem, but then you'd be in lots of company. The numerosity itself is not a problem This is how an attorney confirms an unpleasant truth. 300

Re: [License-discuss] Reply to various recent postings on the crayon license issue

2011-12-20 Thread Bruce Perens
, and their assigns know nothing of Open Source or even that they own the property. Some (like an early but still relevant SSL developer) are contractually bound to never touch that software again. Rod Dixon: Wow! I must add that I do not think I would have seen a comment like this posted by Bruce

Re: [License-discuss] a Free Island Public License?

2011-12-17 Thread Bruce Perens
Sorry, I missed that it wasn't intended for submission. The author should back up and state a /list of goals, /rather than present the argument as pseudo-legal drafting. Thanks Bruce On 12/16/2011 10:23 PM, Karl Fogel wrote: It was never submitted -- I don't think Clark intended

Re: [License-discuss] a Free Island Public License?

2011-12-16 Thread Bruce Perens
to damage our own community. Thanks Bruce Perens attachment: bruce.vcf smime.p7s Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature ___ License-discuss mailing list License-discuss@opensource.org http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo

Re: a proposed change to the OSD

2002-10-26 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Dr. David Alan Gilbert [EMAIL PROTECTED] Can you explain to me (and the list) what the definition of a 'use restriction' is? IANAL, of course. For software, use is execution of the software. Copyright law doesn't speak much of software at all, so we can't rely on that for a definition

Re: a proposed change to the OSD

2002-10-26 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Dr. David Alan Gilbert [EMAIL PROTECTED] but also would need to give them rights to grant use licenses on the derivative? You directly license all users of your portion of the derivative work. The creator of the derivative work does the same. The alternative is to propogate a right to

Re: a proposed change to the OSD

2002-10-26 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Russell Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] No, it doesn't. The GPL only has a few minor terms covering use. The GPL relies on the act of distribution for enforcing its conditions. And those conditions mostly hinge on the right to create derived works rather than the right to use. Bruce

Re: a proposed change to the OSD

2002-10-25 Thread Bruce Perens
My only concern is how this would interact with Larry's new license. Thanks Bruce -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3

Re: a proposed change to the OSD

2002-10-25 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Dr. David Alan Gilbert [EMAIL PROTECTED] Well I was thinking about GPL on libraries since that restricts what you are allowed to link the library against; (No I'm not trying to get into an argument about the merits or not of this). Copyright law spells out a number of rights, including

Re: Legal soundness comes to open source distribution

2002-08-03 Thread Bruce Perens
Is there a reference of some sort for this? It's the case at http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/pdf/D02NYSC/01-07482.PDF . IMO it's not all that germane to warranty disclaimer, and I'm not buying the chain of extrapolation that leads from this case to the conclusion that click-wrap might be

Re: Legal soundness comes to open source distribution

2002-08-03 Thread 'Bruce Perens'
On Sat, Aug 03, 2002 at 12:17:10PM -0700, Lawrence E. Rosen wrote: Bruce, are you going to respond to any of my other comments besides my expression of bafflement? Sure, no problem. Or are you going to simply blame me for the confusion and lack of legal understanding on the part of *some*

Re: Legal soundness comes to open source distribution

2002-08-03 Thread Bruce Perens
Bruce Perens: 1. Is a simple warranty disclaimer that does not require agreement adequate? From: Rod Dixon [EMAIL PROTECTED] I do think the correct answer to the first question is going to be yes. In response to question #1, I would ask another question: aside from ease on the license

Re: Legal soundness comes to open source distribution

2002-08-03 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Rod Dixon [EMAIL PROTECTED] it makes sense to say that clickwrap should not be a mandatory requirement of the OSD, but could be approved as appropriate for an open source licensor. I'd better clear this up. There was no proposal for click-wrap to be a a mandiatory requirement of the

Open Standards: Principles and Practice

2002-04-30 Thread Bruce Perens
Source organization that I don't want to repeat - I'll be watching out for them, you do too. Please go to http://perens.com/OpenStandards/ . There is a link for the current draft, and a link for the disucssion list. Thanks Bruce Perens -- license-discuss archive is at http

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of

2002-03-19 Thread Bruce Perens
Thanks, Joyce. What I have suggested to FSF is that the definition of deploy, for their use, must be tightened up to only apply to the situations in which one would otherwise be pushing that source code button, and only for derived works. Thanks Bruce From: Joyce Chow [EMAIL

source code button

2002-03-15 Thread Bruce Perens
for GPL-like licensing is well-known. If _I_ don't want to use this license, I don't think you'd be very successful in finding other takers. Please go back to drafting. Thanks Bruce Perens -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of

2002-03-14 Thread Bruce Perens
From: David Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] You don't have the APSL quite right. Clause 2.2d only applies to Your Deployed Modifications. Clause 2.2d merely requires a prominent notice of the license for binary only deployments. It can only be triggered by the creation of a derivative work,

OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
: On February 9, 2002 04:50 pm, Bruce Perens wrote: I'd be happy to write the first draft and coordinate comments and changes to it. Of course it would be a group project as I'd need to consult lots of people - attorneys, community leaders, a discussion list, etc. Cool. I

Re: Discuss: BSD Protection License

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
To save time, can we just agree that I have absolutely horrible motives, that I'm a Microsoft plant, and that I'm reporting to the Illuminati, and get back to discussing the license? Well, if you had submitted the license without the manifesto attached, people would have considered the

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
John Cowan: I don't understand how this breaches the spirit of the GPL any more than providing ASP-style access to the unmodified work does (i.e. not at all). If you are free to make private mods to GPLed programs for your own use, why not for others' use? This is just timesharing under a

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
From: John Cowan [EMAIL PROTECTED] I don't see how that could happen, unless bandwidth (including the last mile) becomes too cheap to meter. Think about think clients and internet appliances. If a lot of people go to thin clients because they want to oursource their system administration, then

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
On Wed, Mar 13, 2002 at 10:24:02PM +, Thorsten Glaser wrote: Or A, to look from a different side on this? No. The terms of the GPL don't require you to give source code to the person to whom you distribute the binary. If you fail to do so, the copyright holder can sue you for infringement,

CORRECTION: Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
Darn. I garbled. Delete the don't. The terms of the GPL require you to give source code to the person to whom you distribute the binary. And nobody else. The copyright holder can sue for infringement but can't compel the infringer to give the copyright holder a copy of the source code. He can

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
From: John Cowan [EMAIL PROTECTED] To be concrete, suppose I provide a fast grepping service. Grep is an over-simple case, which might lead you to trivialize the problem. Consider Evolution, OpenOffice, or GNU Emacs. Postulate that someone makes a way for somebody to use one of those programs

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Brian Behlendorf [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yep, like making it available through VNC, for example. A very clear violation of the spirit of the GPL; I'm glad you agree. but the grey area between this and the examples in the earlier messages seems very hard to divide between clear and non. It

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
Bruce wrote (in part) Is this fair to them? I contend that this sort of activity should be placed outside of the covenant represented by the GPL. Richard and Eben don't necessarily agree with me - yet. On Thu, Mar 14, 2002 at 12:37:06AM -0500, Forrest J. Cavalier III wrote: Is the goal here

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
Bruce wrote (in part) So, what if it turns out that the present GPL doens't hold up with regard to dynamic linking? Some future version of the GPL might have to place a constraint on the user regarding combination of works on the user's system that would, if it were distributed in that form,

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
On Thu, Mar 14, 2002 at 01:40:08AM -0500, Forrest J. Cavalier III wrote: The OSI approved the APSL, with clauses 2.2c-d, which require publication of sources upon deployment. Great. I'd like to hear comments upon the probability that this can be enforced, and the way the license must be

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
On Thu, Mar 14, 2002 at 02:21:52AM -0500, Forrest J. Cavalier III wrote: The rights to use the program must not be conditional, except for conditions on uses performed in service to any non-licensed party. Are you sure that this language works in context of OSD #7? Also, you should

Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-13 Thread Bruce Perens
Mitchell, A possibly naive question: The text you submitted is a _broad_ definition that is in common use. Is there a similar _narrow_ definition as well? I don't see that this text would be the right way for a quid-pro-quo license to define the legal entity in which distribution doesn't

Re: Advertising Clauses in Licenses

2002-02-13 Thread Bruce Perens
Unfortunately, the OSD is not very well written. Of course we had no idea, at the time, that the scope of application of this portion of the Debian Social Contract would grow so large. I think that we'd better fix this particular problem regarding use before we get to the more pervasive

Re: Advertising Clauses in Licenses

2002-02-10 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Steve Mallett [EMAIL PROTECTED] On February 9, 2002 04:50 pm, Bruce Perens wrote: It frightens me that no one has (on the list) bothered to ask what the additions might address. Bruce? Badgeware, snoopware, etc., where the requirement is attached to _use_. IMO these already fail

Re: Advertising Clauses in Licenses

2002-02-09 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Russell Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bruce Perens writes: I think there needs to be language added to the OSD, protecting the user and developer from odd burdens that the licensor wishes to impose upon them. Russ Nelson: Are you volunteering to write this language yourself

Re: Advertising Clauses in Licenses

2002-02-09 Thread Bruce Perens
Someone please tell Russ his qmail is rejecting me. Bruce -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3

Re: Advertising Clauses in Licenses

2002-01-21 Thread Bruce Perens
On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 09:34:10AM -0800, Lawrence E. Rosen wrote: But I still have a concern. I have always argued that we should review and approve licenses according to a published standard. This prevents us from being (or appearing to be) arbitrary and capricious. So where in the OSD,

Re: Advertising Clauses in Licenses

2002-01-21 Thread Bruce Perens
Are you assuming that they will not admit new ones? After my conversation with Larry today, and getting a better idea of the way he wants the license approval process to work, I'm going to change my stance. I think there needs to be language added to the OSD, protecting the user and developer

Re: Advertising Clauses in Licenses

2002-01-20 Thread Bruce Perens
On Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 12:07:53PM -0800, Lawrence E. Rosen wrote: I am unmoved by this perceived threat to free or open source software. Perhaps you've never had to put together a Linux distribution, or an embedded Linux product. Consider the overhead this places on Debian, which has up to

Re: NCSA Open Source License

2002-01-17 Thread 'Bruce Perens'
On Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 02:38:20PM -0800, Lawrence E. Rosen wrote: Bruce, the so-called advertising clause in the Apache license is extremely important. As I stated in one of my columns in Linux Journal, trademark protection is, in some respects, even more important to open source companies

NCSA Open Source License

2002-01-16 Thread Bruce Perens
of the MIT variants into a single license with two optional portions: the generally-deprecated advertising clause used by Apache, and the choice-of-jurisdiction used by X.com . Thanks Bruce Perens -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3

Re: NCSA Open Source License

2002-01-16 Thread Bruce Perens
That would be three licenses, I think. OK - one might consider that it's one license _text_ rather than 4, but yes it's three licenses. Is it possible to sucessfully lobby Apache to get rid of the advertising clause? They probably have enough experience now to see it's had no positive effect.

Re: NCSA Open Source License

2002-01-16 Thread Bruce Perens
Yes, I saw the present advertising clause. It's close to being a no-op, but if you want it there, I guess I can't make much headway in this. Well, what do you folks plan to do when faced with yet another BSD/MIT license? Thanks Bruce -- license-discuss archive is at

Re: NCSA Open Source License

2002-01-16 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Russell Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Approve it. We judge licenses by one set of criteria: the OSD. We do, it is admitted, sometimes attempt to convince people to use an existing license. Feel free to try this with NCSA. Yes, I'm trying. I will probably bring you folks in to help at some

Re: Spirit of OSD - was[Fails OSD #1.]

2001-11-17 Thread Bruce Perens
On Tue, Nov 13, 2001 at 09:26:53AM -0400, Steve Mallett wrote: While its not 'statutory' do you still consider it the 'definition' of open-source? Yes. Indeed, I don't believe a statutory-language definition would work as a manifesto, the way the OSD does. Imagine if the declaration of

Fails OSD #1. [Re: OSD compliant shareware]

2001-11-13 Thread Bruce Perens
Hi Forrest, I think it's possible to create any number of licenses that violate the spirit of the OSD while following the letter. However, I don't think this example is one of them. Your #4 doesn't pass OSD #1, which requires that sale be permitted. It's been pointed out that: 1. The OSD is

Re: OSD #2 (was Re: GPL vs APSL (was: YAPL is bad))

2001-09-25 Thread Bruce Perens
Greg London [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (in part) It seems to me that the MIT does not meet item #2 of the OSD, then. An Open Source license is _not_ required to prohibit someone from making a version of the software that is closed source. And since someone can do that without changing the

Re: Simple Public License, Please Review

2000-04-06 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Justin Wells [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject to your license, recipients may use the work on one or more computers, and may create backup copies of it, but may not otherwise copy, distribute, lend, sublicense, or adapt it. Just reading this piece in isolation, I would think it fails the

OSI board asleep at the switch?

2000-04-05 Thread Bruce Perens
is attached to this message. Thanks Bruce Perens From bruce Tue Apr 4 11:54:52 2000 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mail to license-approval getting lost? Hi, I have signed an agreement to operate as a consultant to Novell. In that capacity I sent you guys a license for approval. I

Re: OSI board asleep at the switch?

2000-04-05 Thread Bruce Perens
I'm told privately that this is incompetence and not conspiracy. But that doesn't make it any less of a problem. We need to track this. Thanks Bruce

Re: OSI board asleep at the switch?

2000-04-05 Thread Bruce Perens
OK, I stand corrected about the board listing. Thanks Bruce

Re: OSI board asleep at the switch?

2000-04-05 Thread Bruce Perens
From: "Matthew C. Weigel" [EMAIL PROTECTED] I am hoping also that the difficulty so many have had with unsusbscribing is due to similar issues. That's up to Russ Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Since he sells commercial support for the list manager program, he should be able to fix it :-)

Re: Simple Public License, Please Review

2000-04-05 Thread Bruce Perens
For the sole purpose of taking action against an infringer of our copyrights, including actions seeking remedies, compensation, or the recovery of damages, anyone engaged in the lawful distribution of our software shall be considered a beneficial owner of the rights to copy and distribute

Novell license revision

2000-03-08 Thread Bruce Perens
The enclosed Novell license revision is submitted for OSI approval and public discussion. Thanks Bruce Perens Novell.pdf

Re: Proprietary software for Linux

1999-12-01 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Mark Wells [EMAIL PROTECTED] How is that different from writing something and assigning the copyright to your employer? If you write something and assign the copyright to your employer, you are operating under the assumption that such an assumption is _necessary_ because your employer's

RE: Proprietary software for Linux

1999-11-30 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Mark Wells [EMAIL PROTECTED] Legally these contributors are probably considered to be assigning their rights to the copyright holder. Not at all. They are all individually copyright holders as long as their contribution is non-trivial (over 10 lines), and any one of them can sue for

Re: Proprietary software for Linux

1999-11-30 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Mark Wells [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anyway, transfers of copyright don't require a formal contract--work-for-hire is an obvious counterexample. When you work for hire, your work is in general owned by the person who hired you to do the work, unless you negociate otherwise. This is _not_ a

Re: the skinny -- a LEGAL *nightmare*

1999-11-25 Thread Bruce Perens
From: Nelson Rush [EMAIL PROTECTED] It's obvious this draft wasn't written up by a lawyer A lawyer is very definitely involved. I agree that "Distribute the distributions" is poor language, but you're going overboard in your condemnation. You've got some valid points in there, I see no reason

Novell Cooperative License version 1.0

1999-11-24 Thread Bruce Perens
Here's the draft Novell license. Please note the arbitration and attorney's cost issue. I'd like to hear arguments about its fairness or lack therof. After we're finished with the public review and possible editing cycles with Novell, I will submit this to the OSI board for certification. Note

graphviz license

1999-11-22 Thread Bruce Perens
I think we came to a satisfactory close on the graphviz license a while back. Has OSI voted on it? Thanks Bruce

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