[copyleft-next] Update 2012-09-08

Mike Linksvayer ml at gondwanaland.com
Sun Sep 9 22:57:54 UTC 2012


On Sat, Sep 8, 2012 at 7:17 PM, Richard Fontana <fontana at sharpeleven.org> wrote:
> I added a clarification to the GPLv2-ish 'Later License Versions'
> section to the effect that mere inclusion of a copy of "this"
> particular version of copyleft-next does not signify restriction to a
> particular license version for purposes of that section. This resolves
> an ambiguity that occasionally arises in GPL practice. If some code
> has a COPYING file containing GPLv2, but no other statement about
> license versions, is the author limiting downstream use (let's assume
> we know what that means) to GPLv2 or is this instead a case of what
> GPLv2 means by "the Program ... not specify[ing] a version number of
> this License"? copyleft-next says it's the latter: i.e., if the author
> wants to restrict downstream recipients to v1.0, the author must say
> so in some way more explicit than merely including a copy of
> copyleft-next v1.0. (That could be something quite minimal, like
> separately saying "Licensed under copyleft-next v1.0.")

How does this work in conjunction with

> Finally, I have adopted MPL 2.0's approach in relaxing the requirement
> to include a copy of the license text to "inform[ing] recipients how
> they an obtain a copy". This was motivated by some recent discussion
> on the OSI license-discuss list, and also by a conversation I had at
> LinuxCon about a related issue.

which I take to be inclusive of the mechanism of providing a link to a
copy of the license. Let's say a human reading the link sees a version
number, eg copyleft-next.tld/copyleft-next-1.0

Hopefully that would not be enough to permit v1 only, just as
providing a copy of v1 would not be enough to permit v1 only, assuming
current language, assuming v1 of copyleft-next, etc.

I would prefer or later versions to be the default, with "only"
needing to be specified. Maybe this could be expressed with fewer
words, something like

diff --git a/Drafts/copyleft-next b/Drafts/copyleft-next
index b720b2f..14fa86d 100644
--- a/Drafts/copyleft-next
+++ b/Drafts/copyleft-next
@@ -196,12 +196,10 @@ THIS IS A DRAFT. DO NOT USE AS A LICENSE.

     The Copyleft-Next Project may publish new versions of
     copyleft-next, designated by a distinguishing version number. If
-    the Received Work explicitly grants you the option of Distributing
-    Covered Works under later published versions of copyleft-next, or
-    if it does not specify a version number at all, then you may
-    Distribute Covered Works under any later version of
-    copyleft-next. Mere inclusion of this license document is not
-    specification of a version number.
+    the Received Work does not explicitly remove the option of
+    Distributing Covered Works under later published versions of
+    copyleft-next then you may Distribute Covered Works under any
+    later version of copyleft-next.

 12. No Warranty.



Speaking of later versions, isn't GPLv3 bullet in outbound
compatibility section redundant, given GPLv2 and later versions of
foregoing bullets? I see MPL2 doesn't list GPLv3 separately as a
secondary license.

> I removed the reference to the Open Source Definition in the
> Proprietary-Relicensing section, because (to the extent I ever did) I
> no longer consider the Open Source Definition to be a useful
> definition of open source (a point I explained in my talk at LinuxCon).

+1 to requests for the goods.


On Sat, Sep 8, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Stephen Michael Kellat
<skellat at fastmail.net> wrote:
> On 09/08/2012 10:17 PM, Richard Fontana wrote:
>> Finally, I have adopted MPL 2.0's approach in relaxing the requirement
>> to include a copy of the license text to "inform[ing] recipients how
>> they an obtain a copy". This was motivated by some recent discussion
>> on the OSI license-discuss list, and also by a conversation I had at
>> LinuxCon about a related issue.
> If possible, could this external discussion be summarized?  I would
> strongly prefer to include the entire license text in an accessible
> fashion.  Creative Commons deeds, when the HTML snippets generated by
> their chooser tool, provide much the same access to license text in lieu
> of providing a copy.  See, for example:
> http://lisnews.org/listen_an_lisnewsorg_program_episode_210 &
> http://ohio.ubuntu-us.org/node/110

I don't have a non-silly summary (silly summary: thread participant
exits recursively) but I suppose
http://projects.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss/2012-September/000603.html
is the most relevant message here.

Mike


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