[copyleft-next] Numbering of first release

Richard Fontana fontana at sharpeleven.org
Tue Dec 4 14:10:53 UTC 2012


On 12/04/2012 08:24 AM, Bradley M. Kuhn wrote:
> I don't think that copyleft-next should release until we actually think
> it's appropriate for software developers to license software under it.

I *sort of* agree with this, but we may have different notions of
'appropriate'. I now have the view that 'releasing for the sake of
there being a release' makes no particular sense.

> And, since this came up in the GitHub thread: I don't think a release
> isn't 

(ITYM 'is')

> going to cause network effects, if that's what you're aiming for.

Initially I think it was more like 'symbolic sign of progress',
although that was before I realized copyleft-next is already quite
suitable for use as a license (at least by comparison to existing
popular or widely used FLOSS licenses).

> For that, I suggest instead we do a discussion draft model.  Granted, in
> git, every revision is a discussion draft, but we could mark a specific
> git revision for which we're willing to "take comments on" for a longer
> period -- even as the master branch moves forward.  Basically, we'd be
> making a commitment to the community that comments for an older version
> would be considered for longer, and we'd always answer questions on that
> revision, even if the answer is: "We changed that text to this in the
> current draft which we think addresses your issue".
> 
> What do you think of that idea?

This is a nice idea, and is also similar to what I was thinking for a
while. I forget whether I said this on the mailing list or to you in
person (if the latter, this is HBR cure) - I said a numbered release
could be similar to the GPLv3 discussion drafts. However, in reality
there isn't currently much of a wider 'community' to make such a
commitment to - beyond this mailing list of course. (I think there is
a much larger group of people who have heard of copyleft-next, who are
'watching' the github repository, etc., but I'm not sure how
significant their level of interest is.) I'm not saying that's a
horrible thing, but it may make 'discussion drafts' seem a bit silly.

 - RF




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