On Mar 16, 2004, at 10:26 AM, DJ Anubis wrote:
Le lundi 15 Mars 2004 21:35, Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M. a écrit :It might help if you highlighted the changes (using color text or bold
facing). Is your explanation as to why you have declined to adopt the CUA
Office Public License limited to the desire to "comply" with regulations in
three jurisdictions? Would you be more specific?
Rod
A highlighted version is on line at http://www.lab-project.net/tests_priv/liclab-annotated.html for review.
Thanks, the highlights help enormously. It looks like the only direct changes are:
10. LICENSE means this document in its integrality, without reserve or disclaimer other than herein published.
3.2. Availability of Source Code.
•
and if made available via ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION MECHANISM, must remain available for
at least twenty-four (24) months after the date it initially became available, or
at least twelve (12) months after a subsequent version of that particular MODIFICATIONS has been made available to such recipients. YOU are responsible for ensuring that the SOURCE CODE version remains available even if the ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION MECHANISM is maintained by a third party.
3.3. Description of Modifications.
In your SOURCE CODE, YOU must include comments marking the beginning and end of your MODIFICATIONS, as well as your name.
.4. Inability to Comply Due to Statute or Regulation.
1. Inform ORIGINAL AUTHOR of statute, judicial or regulation incompatibility and ask for an allowance to specific limitations.
Attention:
ORIGINAL AUTHOR can allow you to distribute a LICENSE limited COVERED CODE, but you first must ask.
2.
Comply with the terms of this LICENSE to the maximum extent possible You cannot reject the whole LICENSE when only one statement is not acceptable du to regulations, statute or judicial order. Only the relevant statement may be discarded, after informing ORIGINAL AUTHOR.
I don't see anything there that would be likely to affect OSD compliance. However, Section 4 seems slightly ambiguous - it might be clearer if you said, "You must comply with all of the following conditions, or you must refrain from using the software." or whatever the intent actually is.
I frankly don't quite understand Section 10, but perhaps that's due to the translating back and forth.
One of the reson we had to change some things from CUA Office Public License
have to do with French laws imposing some legal mentions on all contractual
papers or forms. We had to introduce a section for French Government End
Users.
In final, CUA Office Public License is great, only missing non USA specific
legal information. This license only fills the gap.
To be honest, I am a little unhappy with all the "Attentions". Some of them I agree are useful to clarify the intent and purpose of the license. Some of them seem more like commentary than clarification, for example:
2. If YOU created one or more MODIFICATIONS, YOU must add your name as a CONTRIBUTOR to the notice described in EXHIBIT A - Lab Public License Required information..
Attention:
Fair practice. YOU have to be credited for your work.
Perhaps it is just the language, but this article seems to require you to accept -responsibility- for the work, not that other people give you credit. A minor detail, but since I didn't carefully review all the Attentions, I'm not entirely comfortable that all of them support the license as intended.
This raises a larger, somewhat sensitive issue. I greatly appreciate all the effort you've gone through to submit and revise this license to address our concerns. However, given that this is for use in France, I would surmise that you are not a native English speaker. There are several places where the phrasing and spelling seem inappropriate, or at least slightly confusing. I think it would be worthwhile for you to find a friendly English collaborator to work on the wording of the "Attentions," to avoid possible misunderstandings and ensure they are aligned with the larger license terms.
I don't know that this is necessary for OSD compliance, but then again I'm not sure it isn't.
Best of luck, Ernie Prabhakar IANAL, TINLA, etc.
-- JCR aka DJ Anubis LAB Project Initiator & coordinator -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
-- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
