Philippe Ombredanne wrote: > So the questions are: > How can I reuse the text of a license like the OSL to create a new > license? > Is this licensed under the OSL? > Or restricted to Larry's terms? > > Can I create a new license, for instance the nexB public license, based > on the text of the OSL, or other license text but with every reference > to the OSL removed, except for copyright attributions, creating a > derivative work of the license text? > > And if I use an existing OSI approved license as a base, would I need to > go through the full legal commentary to submit it for approval? (BTW, I > know this was debated in the past, but did not find any conclusion on > the topic. > > -- > Cheers > Philippe
Cheers, indeed! :-) I'm looking forward to hearing the discussion. I certainly don't want to be like some power-grabbing monopolist who claims more intellectual property rights than the law allows. What part, after all, of my license is copyrightable subject matter? Everything? We've made copyright so expansive that I expect to see such notices on graffiti soon. /Larry Lawrence Rosen Rosenlaw & Einschlag, technology law offices (www.rosenlaw.com) General counsel, Open Source Initiative (www.opensource.org) 3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482 707-485-1242 * fax: 707-485-1243 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -----Original Message----- > From: Philippe Ombredanne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 11:02 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: On the licensing terms of the open source licenses text > > Dear licenses enthusiasts, > I have a question about the licenses of the text of the licenses > themselves. > Very specifically, I wanted to create our own license, based on the OSL, > but I am taking the OSL here as an example. > And taking the OSL as example gives definitely a recursive feel to the > topic... > > The OSL and many other licenses have fine prints like that: > > "This license is Copyright (C) 2003-2004 Lawrence E. Rosen. > > All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to copy and > > distribute this license without modification. This license may > > not be modified without the express written permission of its > > copyright owner." > This obviously restricts the reuse of the license text in other > licenses. > > On the other hand, every web page on opensource.org has the following > footer: > > "Copyright C 2004 by the Open Source Initiative > > The contents of this website are licensed under the > > Open Software License 2.1 or Academic Free License 2.1" > This could be construed as making the text of the licenses available > under the OSL. > > So the questions are: > How can I reuse the text of a license like the OSL to create a new > license? > Is this licensed under the OSL? > Or restricted to Larry's terms? > > Can I create a new license, for instance the nexB public license, based > on the text of the OSL, or other license text but with every reference > to the OSL removed, except for copyright attributions, creating a > derivative work of the license text? > > And if I use an existing OSI approved license as a base, would I need to > go through the full legal commentary to submit it for approval? (BTW, I > know this was debated in the past, but did not find any conclusion on > the topic. > > -- > Cheers > Philippe > > philippe ombredanne | nexB - Open IT Asset Management > 1 650 799 0949 | pombredanne at nexb.com > http://www.nexb.com > > > -- > 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
