Giacomo Tesio writes ("Re: Hacking License"):
> On Mon, 10 Dec 2018 at 17:29, Ian Jackson
> > I think Giacomo would be well served by adopting AGPLv3+ and
> > nominating himself as licence steward.
>
> Thanks for your suggestion.
> Unfortunately AGPLv3 doesn't cover many of the issues I try to address
> with the Hacking License.
Well, these things are a tradeoff, aren't they ?
Are you more concerned about on the one hand, the ability of people to
use your code in larger projects, and distribute it easily, and so
on ?
Or are you really convinced that these other issues are showstoppers
and that without handling them in your licence, downstreams will abuse
their position ? Frankly that doesn't seem particularly likely.
I think maybe you are seriously undervaluing the benefits of using a
licence that everyone already knows and that is compatible with many
other Free Software licences.
> Also, changing the license steward on an AGPLv3+ could cause serious
> confusion to users in the long term.
I think you must have misunderstood me. I meant that you would avail
yourself of this paragraph of AGPLv3 s14:
If the Program specifies that a proxy can decide which future
versions of the GNU Affero General Public License can be used, that
proxy's public statement of acceptance of a version permanently
authorizes you to choose that version for the Program.
You would nominate yourself, presumably. Then if you engage with
copyleft-next and a new licence (an AGPL successor perhaps) appears
that you like you can use that.
Another alternative that you should seriously consider is to dual
licence your code.
Anyway, I agree very strongly with Ben Finney's criticisms of your
approach. I don't think engaging with the detail of your licence text
is a good use of Debian's time. Nor is this mailing list a good
drafting review panel anyway.
I recommend to my fellow Debian Developers that they do not try to
introduce into Debian a package with this licence. In particular,
I would recommend to my fellow DDs not to sponsor such a package.
That will save ftpmaster the bother of reviewing this licence.
Sorry,
Ian.
