Roland Turner via License-discuss dixit: > would/should it be an acceptable condition in an OSI-approved license that an > unmodified project manifesto be included in any copy of the software? This
Stopping right here: no. We already had this with GNU “F”DL’s invariant sections. Consider this: people make mugs with shortcuts of their favourite editors all the time. It is useful to derive these of the official software (for the sake of this argument, let’s ignore the code vs. documentation distinction; increasingly often either is generated from the other anyway). For most editors, this is possible. For GNU Emacs you’d need a barrel, not a mug (not only because of its complexity) because you’d have to print the GFDL text and the GNU manifesto and whatever Stallmann propaganda du jour there is. So, no, invariant sections are not acceptable in any way. More examples: Reuse of code snippets in a (similarily licenced) project would mean they’d have to also copy the (totally irrelevant) manifesto of the other project. (If badly written, *this* could then lead people to think it also applies to the receiving project, or worse.) Manifestos that become outdated. Manifestos that include content deemed indistributable in certain legislations. Manifestos that are part of the source code, which implement backdoors or digital restriction management (DRM). We can come up with more examples… bye, //mirabilos -- I believe no one can invent an algorithm. One just happens to hit upon it when God enlightens him. Or only God invents algorithms, we merely copy them. If you don't believe in God, just consider God as Nature if you won't deny existence. -- Coywolf Qi Hunt _______________________________________________ The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Official statements by the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address. License-discuss mailing list License-discuss@lists.opensource.org http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org