Why limit the pledge to OSI-approved licences?

[Heiki Lõhmus]

Dear all,

On Tue, Dec 08, 2020 at 10:52:07AM -0800, Bradley M. Kuhn wrote:
> Also, regarding whether to use a list: does the FSF have a license list of
> its own, or do you mean the list that's maintained by the GNU project?

I mean the FSF's list at <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html>.
While the page is hosted on gnu.org, it clearly states that it "is
maintained by the Free Software Foundation's Licensing and Compliance
Lab". 

> I do think we could and should limit to software licensed under a standard
> FOSS license "somehow".

Perhaps. I would hope that we could come up with an unambiguous list of
licences plus extract a commitment to extend the same treatment to
anything else the pledger believes to be Free Software in their sole
judgement.

> I briefly considered that perhaps copyleft-only made sense, which I'd be
> glad to discuss.  The issue with non-copyleft works is that they could be
> incorporated legitimately into proprietary products, which might compete
> with the proprietary products of the company sending the takedown notice.

A broad commitment to resolving issues with Free Software projects first
would not preclude a pledger from issuing a takedown notice for any
proprietary product incorporating a piece of non-copyleft Free Software
subject to a dispute. If it did, we would soon be discussing whether the
pledge should be strong copyleft only.

By limiting the pledge to copyleft projects only, we would also be
signalling that it would be fair game for non-copyleft Free Software
projects to issue immediate takedown notices and apply for injunctive
relief the instant they discover someone violating their non-copyleft
licence. (Yes, it is far easier to comply with a lax licence, but humans
are wonderfully apt at making mistakes.) Is this the kind of behaviour
we want to encourage as a community?


Cheers,
-- 
Heiki Lõhmus
Vice President
Free Software Foundation Europe
xmpp:repentinus at fsfe.org
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