Re: Formal Request for Approval: Simplified Artistic License
I have significantly modified the license. I apologize for not making these changes before sending my original request for approval. These changes were necessary however. I am going up against big business and simply needed to clarify a few things and add a few added protections to the license. I do not expect any more changes to be made. I feel this license is solid and ready to undergo review by the OSI Board. PACKAGE_NAME LICENSE (Simplified Artistic License) Preamble Copyright COPYRIGHT_HOLDER, COPYRIGHT_YEAR. All Rights Reserved. The intent of this document is to state the conditions under which PACKAGE_NAME (Package), and derivatives of that collection of files created through textual modification, may be copied, such that the author, COPYRIGHT_HOLDER (Copyright Holder), maintains some semblance of artistic control over the development of the Package, while giving the users of the Package (You) the right to use and distribute the Package in a more-or-less customary fashion, plus the right to make reasonable modifications. Conditions of Redistribution and Use You may redistribute and use this Package, in source and binary forms, with or without modification, provided that the following conditions are met: - All distributions of this Package, and its derivatives, are subject to this License. Software offered in conjunction with this Package is not necessarily subject to this condition. - Redistributions of the Package in source form must retain the original copyright notices and associated comments that are denoted as an attribution notice in the source code, as furnished by the Copyright Holder. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. - If the source code of this Package was modified in any way, and these changes are made as part of a redistribution of the Package, each file that was modified must include the statement this file was modified from its original version along with appropriate comments indicating how and why the file was modified; these comments should be placed directly underneath the attribution notice of each file. If these changes are being made for a binary distribution only, you must indicate that you are using a modified version of the Package. - Any files supplied as input to or produced as output from the programs of this Package, and any files that are designed to work in conjunction with this Package, that are not distributed with the original Package as supplied by the Copyright Holder, do not fall under the copyright of this Package, but belong to whoever generated them. - The name of the Copyright Holder may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this Package without specific prior written permission from the Copyright Holder. For written permission, please contact CONTACT_INFO. - The name(s) PRODUCT_NAME must not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this Package without specific prior written permission from the Copyright Holder. - Products derived from this Package may not be called PRODUCT_NAME, nor may PRODUCT_NAME appear in their name, without specific prior written permission of the Copyright Holder. You may indicate that your software works in conjunction with PRODUCT NAME by calling it Product for PRODUCT_NAME instead of PRODUCT NAME Product. - You may not advertise this Package as a product of your own. - You agree that any lawsuit you file against the Copyright Holder shall be maintained in the courts of the jurisdiction in which the Copyright Holder resides or in which the Copyright Holder conducts its primary business, and under the laws of that jurisdiction excluding its conflict-of-law provisions. - This License shall terminate automatically and you may no longer exercise any of the rights granted to you by this License if you file a lawsuit in any court against the Copyright Holder. No Warranty / Disclaimer of Liability THIS PRODUCT IS PROVIDED ON AN AS IS BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. EACH RECIPIENT IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR READING THE SOURCE CODE FOR THIS PACKAGE AND DETERMINING WHETHER THIS PACKAGE DOES WHAT (S)HE EXPECTS IT TO DO, AND FOR DETERMINING THE APPROPRIATENESS OF USING AND DISTRIBUTING THIS PACKAGE, AND ASSUMES ALL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH ITS EXERCISE OF RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE RISKS AND COSTS OF PROGRAM ERRORS, COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS, DAMAGE TO OR LOSS OF DATA, PROGRAMS OR EQUIPMENT, AND UNAVAILABILITY OR INTERRUPTION OF OPERATIONS. NEITHER RECIPIENT NOR ANY CONTRIBUTORS SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
Formal Request for Approval: Simplified Artistic License
[My apologies if you receive this twice; I thought I sent it in text format the first time...] This is a formal request that the OSI Board approve the license I have created, the Simplified Artistic License. I have patiently listened to all feedback regarding this license and adjusted it accordingly. I have also considered using every other license that has been approved by the OSI; however none of them are appropriate to my needs, as will be clearly stated below. I believe this license fully complies with the requirements of the OSD as well as the spirit of open source itself. I offer this license as a template so that it may be freely used by anyone. I hereby officially place this license into the public domain. Please grant this license into the family of approved licenses. Thank you. 1. This license is available at: http://about.enetwizard.net/license.ehtml and below as a template. Information about my project (offered under this license) is available at: http://projects.enetwizard.net/cmserver.ehtml. 2. The Simplified Artistic License is loosely based upon the Artistic License. My license is based upon the Artistic License because I wish to maintain some semblance of artistic control over my package, while allowing the users of the package to use and distribute the package in a more-or-less customary fashion, plus the right to make reasonable modifications. The Artistic License does not meet my needs for the following reasons: A. The license makes many references to Perl and C code; software artists use many different programming languages. B. The license places too many restrictions on the user which are unnecessary to my package. C. The license places too many conditions, some of which are archaic to modern day development of the web environment. D. The language is too complicated; I do not feel such complicated language is necessary for a license with few restrictions. As of yet, the points behind the need for the Simplified Artistic License have not been answered by anyone citing a similar suitable license. Only the AFL has been suggested, and Larry Rosen's post on the subject shows why it is unsuitable. An artistic license is appropriate for those who consider their packages to be artistic works and feel strongly about maintaining some semblance of artistic control over their packages. As such, the Simplified Artistic License has its place among the family of approved licenses, and makes a suitable alternative to the already-approved Artistic License. The Simplified Artistic License is considerably different than the Artistic License and therefore explaining exactly how it has changed would be difficult. However, in the interest of fully complying with the formal instructions placed on the OSI website, I will attempt to do so now: A. The Simplified Artistic License removes most of the restrictions and conditions which are a part of the Artistic License. B. The Simplified Artistic License requires that the Attribution Notice contained within the source files not be modified. C. The Simplified Artistic License requires that changes to the source files (if planned for distribution) be properly documented in order to avoid confusion with the original package. That is pretty much the extent of the conditions I wish to place upon my package; I consider everything else to be up to the user. In my opinion, this is the most appropriate way to prevent confusion with the original package, and as such, maintaining some semblance of artistic control. 3. Derivative works of this package must be offered under this license; it is the only way to ensure that the artistic control of this package remain intact. However, software offered in conjunction with the package offered under this license is up to the artist of that package, and I do not see any conflicts. 4. I will submit this license via email to license-approval and license-discuss. 5-7. If you find that my license complies with the OSD and the spirit of open source, I expect that my license will be approved this time, without any further attempts at prevention or coercion. 8. I look forward to reaching #8 as posted on your website. PACKAGE_NAME LICENSE (Simplified Artistic License) Preamble Copyright COPYRIGHT_HOLDER, COPYRIGHT_YEAR. All Rights Reserved. The intent of this document is to state the conditions under which PACKAGE_NAME (Package), and derivatives of that collection of files created through textual modification, may be copied, such that the author, COPYRIGHT_HOLDER (Copyright Holder), maintains some semblance of artistic control over the development of the Package, while giving the users of the Package the right to use and distribute the Package in a more-or-less customary fashion, plus the right to make reasonable modifications. Conditions of Redistribution and Use You may redistribute and use this Package, in source and binary forms, with or without
Re: Formal Request for Approval: Simplified Artistic License
From my perspective, this license meets the Open Source Definition. I do have some minor comments. - Redistributions of the Package in source form must retain the original copyright notices and associated comments that are included at the beginning of each source file, denoted as an attribution notice, as furnished by the Copyright Holder, both in the Package itself and in any documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution of the Package in source form. Does this mean that I must copy the attribution notice from the source code into the documentation, if it isn't already there? This clause could stand a bit of simplification. (but then again, I am not a lawyer, so I like simple stuff) - The scripts and library files supplied as input to or produced as output from the programs of this Package do not automatically fall under the copyright of this Package, but belong to whoever generated them, and may be sold commercially, and may be aggregated with this Package. I would lose the word automatically. I don't think it adds anything, but may cause confusion over how such files might fall under the copyright. - Redistributions of any form whatsoever must retain the following acknowledgment: This product includes PRODUCT_NAME, freely available from PRODUCT_URL Where is this acknowledgement placed? If it's in the source code and documentation of the Package, there is no problem. If it must be placed outside of the package, then you run into the old advertisement clause that BSD had so much problem with. -- David Johnson ___ http://www.usermode.org pgp public key on website -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
