(Since we don't quite have freestandards.org mailing lists set up yet, I'm cross-posting this to li18nux and lsb-discuss.)
This is a proposal for the Free Standards Group licensing guidelines. This is primarly based on discussions, interviews, and talks from over the course of the last year. Most recently, this issue has resurfaced due to availability of Motif under an "open source" license, which may or may not meet the Open Source Definition (same as the Debian Free Software Guidelines). Going forward, I'd like to document this policy on the freestandards.org web page so we're all in sync. We also need to stick to our mission: We are a non-profit corporation organized to accelerate the use and acceptance of open source technologies through the application, development and promotion of standards. In other words, we shouldn't do things that sabotage the use and acceptance of open source technologies. For example, our specifications should not *require* software that isn't open source. If this proves to be too controversial, we can postpone a decision until later, but it seems fairly straightforward to me. Finally, it may not be the case that all parts of this proposal will work for all subsections of the Free Standards Group, but I do think it makes sense to have a single set of basic guidelines. -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- - Free Standards Group specifications will be published on the internet (under a zero cost and non-restrictive license). - Free Standards Group software will be published on the internet (under an Open Source license). This includes both test suite and sample implementations. - An Open Source implementation of any specified software must exist (in a state sufficient for common use and deployment). - Any specifications referenced by our standards should be currently available to the public for a reasonable cost. - "Open Source" is defined by the Open Source Definition (Version 1.7) as published at http://www.opensource.org/osd.html with the following clarifications: - Clause 9. License Must Not Contaminate Other Software. While using the GPL for libraries is conformant with this OSD requirement, we do not want the runtime linking of any GPL libraries to be required for conformance with our standards. - Software licenses should be OSD-certified except in the case of licenses specifically approved by the Free Standards Group board. - Software commissioned by the Free Standards Group should be licensed under the appropriate license for the project (X11 license for X software, LGPL for most libraries, etc.) or using one of the "recommended" licenses (assuming it makes sense). - Software commissioned by the Free Standards Group should be copyright "Free Standards Group" unless it is being assigned to an approved legal entity (for example, the Free Software Foundation). (Large assignments need be approved, patches and other small contributions do not.) (Legally speaking, copyright assignments need to be signed by an officer of the company.) - "Recommended" licenses are currently the GPL (2.0) except for libraries, the LGPL (2.1) for libraries, and the MIT license. Notes: - The license for our test suites is not yet defined. A license that meets the special requires for test software needs to be located or written. - For reference, you may want to read the LSB mission document located at http://www.linuxbase.org/mission.html -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT --
