Re: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-19 Thread Ean Schuessler 

On Mon, 2002-03-18 at 18:01, phil hunt wrote:
 This ties it to a specific technology. For all anyone knows, no-one
 will be using http in 109 years time.

Once HTTP goes away (which will probably be 109 years) change the
protocol in the license. The point is that we want to enforce
distribution of source not provide a potential pandoras box.

Let's examine another scenerio. What if I write some sort of web service
and I have my Obtain Source button require that you register your name
in my SPAM mailing database. Am I allowed to do that? What language will
you introduce to defend against that? The problem is that this approach
allows software authors to add sections of immutable code as long as
they are source distribution facilities. I think it is far more simple
to decouple distribution enforcement from the actual features of the
program.
 
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Ean Schuessler  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brainfood, Inc.  http://www.brainfood.com
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RE: OSD modification regarding what license can require of user

2002-03-18 Thread Ean Schuessler 

On Fri, 2002-03-15 at 18:53, Lawrence E. Rosen wrote:
 My concern is only with the interaction of that requirement with Bruce
 Perens' proposed OSD change.  How are we to decide, a priori, whether a
 license condition imposed upon a licensee is  reasonable or burdensome?
 Is it reasonable or burdensome, as you proposed, to require users who
 are ASPs to release their versions with a download server source
 button prominently located on pages every user sees?  All pages?  What
 are permissible requirements without exceeding the bounds of good taste?

I agree. Licenses should address legal events such as distribution. When
they impose structural requirements on the code or the interface is when
they can become awkward or simply absurd. The RPC point is certainly
valid. What if someone wants to use the Slashdot source and to provide a
service that distributes RSS news feeds as the result of SOAP requests? 
What if you want to aggregate several GPL web services into a new single
service. Does it have multiple view source buttons? What if you want to
distribute that service to a device with limited screen real-estate,
like a cell phone? It seems too easy to find problems with this solution
and the real world is a lot more creative than I am.

What if you simply added a requirement that:

http://[service host name]:80/gnu-sources

Must always either supply the sources or a redirect to the sources? 
This rule could even apply for internal distribution (ie. services only
available to AOL users). That would seem to take care of the problem
without placing potentially unfulfillable constraints on the user
interface.

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Ean Schuessler  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brainfood, Inc.  http://www.brainfood.com
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license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3