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OSI Hopes To Decrease Number of Licenses

Posted by timothy on from the but-licenses-are-art-in-themselves dept.

Noksagt writes "Various outlets report that the OSI may cut down the increasing number of Open Source licenses. Right now there are about 50 approved licenses; incompatible licenses confuse and impede developers and end users alike. The OSDL has been pushing hard for this at LinuxWorld. Sam Greenblatt, a member of the OSDL board, said 'Eventually there should be three licenses: The GPL, a commercial version of the GPL, and, of course, there will be the BSD because you can't rid of it.'"

8 of 541 comments (clear)

  1. Ein Volk by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ein License

  2. Cant get rid of BSD by OneArmedMan · · Score: 2, Funny

    Unless of course, it dies!

  3. Ah, standards. by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Funny
    > Right now there are about 50 approved licenses; incompatible licenses confuse and impede developers and end users alike.

    But that's what's so wonderful about standards. There are so many to choose from. Besides, if you really have a problem with a certain license, you should have the right to view, modifiy, and release your own license based on the work of those who've written licenses before you.

    Join us now and share the licenses!
    You'll be free, lawyers, you'll be free!
    You'll be free, lawyers, you'll be free!

    Lobbyists get piles of money,
    That is true, lawyers, that is true.
    But they cannot help their neighbors;
    That's not good, lawyers, that's not good.

    When we have enough licenses
    At our call, lawyers, at our call,
    We'll throw out that dirty li*cough*software,
    Ever more, lawyers, ever more.

    Sorry, RMS, I had to. The muse knows what it wants, even if it wants to give me a first-class ticket to hell with window seating.

  4. We African Greys... by African+Grey · · Score: 5, Funny

    prefer the BSD license. It's not that we don't want to publish the changes we make to source code, but a lot of parrots don't have decent net access, especially in Africa. IP over avian carrier just isn't very fast, and source is a lot bigger than binaries. If you humans would get your act together and bring some kind of decent connectivity to the jungles, you'd be able to see our coding prowess for yourselves!

  5. Someone set us up the optimist. by argent · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is supposed to be funny, right?

  6. RMS is going up in the world by Hope+Thelps · · Score: 2, Funny
    From one of the articles:
    "God created GPL for a reason," Swainson said in a presentation at LinuxWorld, claiming that it is the best license around.
    Sounds like Saint Ignucius got a promotion.
    --
    To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
  7. More proof... by eno2001 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...that BSD is NOT dying: "You can't get rid of it" RE the license. Hahaha... laugh it's funny! ;P

    --
    -"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
  8. Wait this sounds like... by xgamer04 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Three Licenses for the GNU-kings under the sky,
    Seven for the Corporate-lords in their halls of stone,
    Nine for Hacker Men doomed to die,
    One for Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond on their dark throne.
    In the Land of CVS where the Versions lie.
    One License to rule them all, One License to find them,
    One License to bring them all and in the darkness bind() them.
    In the Land of CVS where the Versions lie.

    Sorry, had to be done. :)

    --
    When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?