RE: Emacs splash screen [was: Re: [tlug] lynx proxy settings

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

burlingk@example.com writes:

 > The Open Source license managed that years ago without
 > all the chaos that surrounds the patent wording in GPL3.

Sure.  Personally I find the Open Software License by Larry Rosen and
his Academic Free License very attractive because they're so
straightforward.  There is some stuff in the Creative Commons licenses
that I don't understand, but I imagine they're equally well-written.

 > In fact, that was the very reason that the Open Source
 > license used to be listed as incompatible with the GPL,
 > was because of the patent issues that the FSF used to 
 > feal were incompatible with the spirit of the GPL.

I suppose you're talking about Larry Rosen's Open Software License?
If so, actually, the incompatibility is a matter of the "get a
statement of acceptance from the user" clause, which is definitely a
restriction that cannot be imposed compatibly with the GPL, not even
v3 with its "permitted variants" clause.

N.B. "Incompatible with the spirit" may be a reason for deprecating a
license, but it is not the same thing as "legally incompatible".

 > I suppose that they have learned otherwise sense then.
 > That, and I think that more recent versions of the OSL
 > may have been more friendly (I will have to read it
 > soon and find out).

Nope, because of the Acceptance and Termination clause (#9).  In fact,
the Academic Free License contains that clause as well, and therefore
is incompatible with the GPL to the best of my knowledge.

Interestingly enough, both licenses contain the External Deployment
(or "Affero") clause (#5) which protects network users (by treating an
ASP as a distribution).  The FSF has a separate license for that
purpose (the Affero GPL), which (as you would expect from the FSF) has
a bunch of complicated language and philosophical digressions in it.

What's even more interesting is that the Affero GPL wording gives me
hives and makes me put my hand on my libertarian membership card to
prevent pickpockets, but the OSL/AFL wording makes me feel "this is so
obviously right", even though the legal effect is probably the same!
I know I should be more objective, but ....