I'll try to avoid the minor tempest about the list that has nothing to do with the proposal for a new format for a landing page, and just ask a question:
On Sat, Jun 02, 2012 at 12:35:06PM -0700, Luis Villa wrote: > > Open Source licenses are licenses that comply with the Open Source > Definition and have been approved through the Open Source Initiative's > license review process. Is "have been approved through the [OSI's] license review process" really a requirement for being an "open source license", or is that just a requirement for being *certified* as an "open source license" by the OSI? It seems that there is a distinction to be made between "OSI-approved" and merely "open source", where "open source" would *by definition* (tautologically, it seems) be any license that conforms to the definition of open source. If nothing else, I'd think that avoiding a clear statement of approval as a requirement to be called "open source" might head off many objections over years to come and/or declining respect for the OSI as the entity responsible for defining open source. As things currently stand, some corporations and individuals question whether a license that makes source available solely for review is "open source", and a reference to the provenance of the term "open source" and the definition maintained by OSI is only sometimes effective at getting them to shut up. Adding a statement to the effect that the OSI is the sole gatekeeper of open-source-ness might prove counterproductive in the future because it effectively tells people that the "definition" is no longer really a definition, and serves solely as one of two criteria for OSI favor -- the other possibly being fancy or whim. Whether that is how the OSI conducts itself or not may then become irrelevant to the general public perception of the matter. -- Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ] _______________________________________________ License-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss
