Here is OSL 3.0 § 16:

 

16) Modification of This License. This License is Copyright © 2005 Lawrence 
Rosen. Permission is granted to copy, distribute, or communicate this License 
without modification. Nothing in this License permits You to modify this 
License as applied to the Original Work or to Derivative Works. However, You 
may modify the text of this License and copy, distribute or communicate your 
modified version (the "Modified License") and apply it to other original works 
of authorship subject to the following conditions: (i) You may not indicate in 
any way that your Modified License is the "Open Software License" or "OSL" and 
you may not use those names in the name of your Modified License; (ii) You must 
replace the notice specified in the first paragraph above with the notice 
"Licensed under <insert your license name here>" or with a notice of your own 
that is not confusingly similar to the notice in this License; and (iii) You 
may not claim that your original works are open source software unless your 
Modified License has been approved by Open Source Initiative (OSI) and You 
comply with its license review and certification process.

There is similar language in AFL 3.0 and NOSL 3.0. The original OSI board 
specifically liked this language, back when they wanted me to create a license 
that met their expectations for an OSI-approved network copyleft license with 
an explicit patent defensive termination provision that met their goals then, 
and that WASN'T a GPL. I have been told that the OSL is a model for modified 
open source licenses in the U.S. and Europe. 

I realize most of you don't give a damn about the OSL license, but anyway that 
is what it says. Now, as I told Bruce Perens privately, I've resigned myself to 
being ignored on this OSI list. Bruce replied:

Yes, but you project your personal hurt about this pretty much every time 
discussion comes around to a GNU license. The world didn't beat a path to your 
door. It doesn't always, and it doesn't have to be fair. Reminding us how 
bitter you are about it once a month is a losing fight.

 

I'm not bitter. But I am disappointed that I get criticized whenever I mention 
OSL 3.0. I assume that I feel like others here whose licenses are often ignored 
in favor of the GPL and AGPL, such as the ones mentioned below by John Cowan. 
Fortunately, the recent threads about the OSI process revealed this general 
discontent with "three licenses are enough."

 

This is my once-a-month email about the OSL. :-) I add this information to 
John's reminder below about Eclipse PL, Apache 2.0, MPL 2.0, CDDL, MIT and BSD 
licenses. There are many others.... Thanks for collecting and organizing this 
information, Patrick. 

 

/Larry

 

 

From: License-discuss <license-discuss-boun...@lists.opensource.org> On Behalf 
Of John Cowan
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2019 8:42 PM
To: mas...@opensource.org; license-discuss@lists.opensource.org
Subject: Re: [License-discuss] License licenses

 

The licenses of the GPL and LGPL are embedded in them:  "Everyone is permitted 
to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing 
it is not allowed."  That's to prevent creating a twisty maze of licenses, all 
different.

 

 

The same is true of the Eclipse PL:  "The Agreement Steward reserves the right 
to publish new versions (including revisions) of this Agreement from time to 
time. No one other than the Agreement Steward has the right to modify this 
Agreement."

 

 

The license for the Apache 2.0 license is given at 
<http://www.apache.org/foundation/license-faq.html>:

 

Yes, you are allowed to re-use and modify them. You just can't hold the ASF 
legally responsible if these documents are not exactly what you intend them to 
be. We recommend that you obtain your own legal advice so you know exactly what 
you are getting yourself into. 

 

And if you adapt these agreements for your purposes, you have to make sure that 
the phrase 'Apache Software Foundation' or any confusingly similar references 
or parts that specifically refer to the Apache organisation do not appear in 
your version of the agreements (except to note that your version is derived and 
differs from the original provided by the ASF).

 

The MPL 2.0 is similar, but embedded in the license itself:  "If you create 
software not governed by this License, and you want to create a new license for 
such software, you may create and use a modified version of this License if you 
rename the license and remove any references to the name of the license steward 
(except to note that such modified license differs from this License)."

 

The CDDL is much the same:  "When You are an Initial Developer and You want to 
create a new license for Your Original Software, You may create and use a 
modified version of this License if You: (a) rename the license and remove any 
references to the name of the license steward (except to note that the license 
differs from this License); and (b) otherwise make it clear that the license 
contains terms which differ from this License."

 

De facto, anyone can change the MIT and BSD licenses, and many people do.

 

 

 

On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 4:26 PM Patrick Masson <mas...@opensource.org 
<mailto:mas...@opensource.org> > wrote:

All,

 

We recently received a question asking, "What are the licenses for the OSI 
approved license texts themselves?"

 

Currently the OSI website, including the pages with license text, states,

 

"The content on this website, of which Opensource.org is the author, is 
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."

"Opensource.org is not the author of any of the licenses reproduced on this 
site. Questions about the copyright in a license should be directed to the 
license steward."

 

We would like to add the following information to each license page:

 

- License Copyright: [Name of person/organization who submitted the license, 
and year submitted]

- License License: [The license e.g. CC-BY-SA, for the text of the license]

- License Contact: [Contact info for person/organization who submitted, or 
currently manages, the license]

 

If you have any of the above, can you please share it with me?

 

I will also be searching the OSI License Review / Discuss archives and OSI 
Board meeting notes for references to try to collect the same info. It would be 
nice if the people on this list could provide any information they may have, so 
I can confirm any information I may find/have.

 

Thanks for your help,

Patrick

 

 

-- 

  ||  |   | || |  ||  ||  | || |  |||  |  |||  

 

Patrick Masson

General Manager & Director, Open Source Initiative

855 El Camino Real, Ste 13A, #270

Palo Alto, CA 94301

United States

Office: (415) 857-5398

Mobile: (970) 4MASSON

Freenode: OSIMasson

Email: mas...@opensource.org <mailto:mas...@opensource.org> 

Website: www.opensource.org <http://www.opensource.org> 

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