diff --git a/notes.md b/notes.md index 1b8943ee9cafc7b5a1e2f53265b90f99a92190f7..8a948798cd9d2c33d3b60794077ecfbea4da5fee 100644 --- a/notes.md +++ b/notes.md @@ -54,21 +54,33 @@ need followup. - uses it's self-rolled _"Delayed Open Source Attribution License"_ - [license file on GH](https://github.com/ChildMindInstitute/mindlogger-applet-builder/blob/master/LICENSE.md) -# Categorization question +# Taxonomy -Is there a distinction to be made between these cases? +I (Seth) think there's a distinction to be made between these three cases: -* licenses that are not open source licenses but that state (in the license - text somewhere) that they automatically convert / automatically permit use - and redistribution subject to a specified open source license after a period - of time -* publicly announced practices of manually relicensing old codebase snapshots - on a particular schedule, which depend on a person at the company explicitly - making a delayed open source release +* "automatic": licenses that are not open source licenses but that state + (in the license text somewhere) that they automatically convert / + automatically permit use and redistribution subject to a specified + open source license after a period of time + +* "manual": publicly announced practices of manually relicensing old codebase + snapshots on a particular schedule, which depend on a person at the company + explicitly making a delayed open source release (In some sense, this is a potential distinction between a "delayed open source licensing business practice" and a "delayed open source license".) +* "post-hoc" / "unscheduled": proprietary software that eventually was + relicensed under an open source license, without a public statement of + intent to do so at the time of its original publication, or without a + published schedule for the conversion + +I would include the former two in the scope of the report but not the +latter one (except to explain how it's different). Some people have been +suggesting some of these cases (which can be fairly famous, like Netscape +Navigator!), but I think these should be thought of as more of a one-time +"change" than a "delay". + # Threads where we have posted Look in the follow-ups in these threads (and subthreads thereof) for