On Mar 07, 2017, at 04:45 PM, Ben Tilly <bti...@gmail.com> wrote:


When we talk about whether a software license is OSD compliant, we are only 
addressing the question of whether this license restricts software under 
copyright law in a way that violates the OSD.


I hear you, but I don't see where the OSD says that.  It does not mention copyright law.  
The OSD annotated or otherwise doesn't even mention the word 'copy'.  It (specifically?) 
says "the distribution terms".



While I certainly can understand the perspective that there are other laws, 
regulations, and factors, not all of them affect distribution terms of the 
software -- they are restrictions on me, my assets, my situation, not the 
software.  Software patents are terrible in part because they pertain to the 
source code itself, thus affecting the distribution terms on that code.



In a way, it's convenient that the OSD does not specifically call out copyright 
and speaks generically.  It's a testament of forethought (or luck) of the 
original authors.



Cheers!

Sean




_______________________________________________
License-discuss mailing list
License-discuss@opensource.org
https://lists.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss

Reply via email to