MirOS Licence
Encyclopedia
The MirOS Licence is a free content licence (for software and other free cultural works
such as graphical, literal, musical, …) originated at The MirOS Project
for their own publications because the ISC license used by OpenBSD
was perceived as having problems with wording and too America centric. It has strong roots in the UCB BSD licence and the Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer
with a focus on modern, explicit, legible language and usability by European (except UK), specifically German, authors (while not hindering adoption by authors from other legislations). It is a permissive (“BSD/MIT-style”) licence.
Another novelty is that this licence was specified for any kind of copyrightable work from the start; as such, it does not only meet the Open Source Definition
and Debian Free Software Guidelines
but also the Open Knowledge Definition
and, in fact, has been approved by the OKFN
long before OSI
did.
The licence has not seen formal legal review, but is listed on ifrOSS
’ licence centre webpages. The Free Software Foundation
has not formally added the licence as either a free software licence
or free documentation license to their pages, but their software directory has a category for it.
It was later seen that some countries have special laws for databases, which should be considered in a later version of this licence, if any, to keep it as generally usable as possible. Patent and trademark law was intentionally not addressed, only copyright law, but the general idea is to have one “copycenter” style licence (more specifically, one that says do with it whatever you want, just don’t pretend it’s not mine and don’t sue me) for everything. This was partially prompted by the dilemma of people using the GPL
for documentation because the GFDL
is unfree, but the GPL
(and all other traditional Open Source licences) was not suited for it.
Definition of Free Cultural Works
The Definition of Free Cultural Works is the definition of free content put forth by Erik Möller and published on the website .The first draft of the Definition of Free Cultural Works was published 3 April 2006 . Richard Stallman, Lawrence Lessig, Angela Beesley and others helped the project...
such as graphical, literal, musical, …) originated at The MirOS Project
MirOS BSD
MirOS BSD is a free and open source operating system, which started as a fork of OpenBSD 3.1 in August 2002. It is intended to maintain the security of OpenBSD - from which it frequently synchronises code updates - with better support for European localisation...
for their own publications because the ISC license used by OpenBSD
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
was perceived as having problems with wording and too America centric. It has strong roots in the UCB BSD licence and the Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer
Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer
The Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer is an open source license, approved by the Open Source Initiative . It is unique among the OSI's licenses because of the choices it allows in its construction; it lets the licensor pick anywhere from 0-2 warranty disclaimers, whether they want to...
with a focus on modern, explicit, legible language and usability by European (except UK), specifically German, authors (while not hindering adoption by authors from other legislations). It is a permissive (“BSD/MIT-style”) licence.
Another novelty is that this licence was specified for any kind of copyrightable work from the start; as such, it does not only meet the Open Source Definition
Open Source Definition
The Open Source Definition is a document published by the Open Source Initiative, to determine whether or not a software license can be labeled with the open-source certification mark....
and Debian Free Software Guidelines
Debian Free Software Guidelines
The Debian Free Software Guidelines is a set of guidelines that the Debian Project uses to determine whether a software license is a free software license, which in turn is used to determine whether a piece of software can be included in Debian...
but also the Open Knowledge Definition
Open Knowledge
Open Knowledge is a term used to denote a set of principles and methodologies related to the production and distribution of knowledge works in an open manner...
and, in fact, has been approved by the OKFN
Open Knowledge Foundation
The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that promotes open knowledge, including open content and open data. It was founded 24 May 2004 in Cambridge, UK...
long before OSI
Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product...
did.
The licence has not seen formal legal review, but is listed on ifrOSS
IfrOSS
Institut für Rechtsfragen der Freien und Open Source Software, abbreviated to ifrOSS, is a German organisation that provides legal services for free software....
’ licence centre webpages. The Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
has not formally added the licence as either a free software licence
Free software licence
A free software licence is a software licence which grants recipients rights to modify and redistribute the software, which would otherwise be prohibited by copyright law. A free software licence grants, to the recipients, freedoms in the form of permissions to modify or distribute copyrighted work...
or free documentation license to their pages, but their software directory has a category for it.
It was later seen that some countries have special laws for databases, which should be considered in a later version of this licence, if any, to keep it as generally usable as possible. Patent and trademark law was intentionally not addressed, only copyright law, but the general idea is to have one “copycenter” style licence (more specifically, one that says do with it whatever you want, just don’t pretend it’s not mine and don’t sue me) for everything. This was partially prompted by the dilemma of people using the GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
for documentation because the GFDL
GNU Free Documentation License
The GNU Free Documentation License is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights to copy, redistribute, and modify a work and requires all copies and...
is unfree, but the GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(and all other traditional Open Source licences) was not suited for it.
External links
- HTML version of the licence text
- UTF-8 plain text version
- CVSweb of the master copy of the licence text (note: license.template was the ISC license used by OpenBSD, licence.template is the one written by Thorsten Glaser and developed for MirOS)
- ifrOSS licence centre (English) listing
- Open Definition (OKFNOpen Knowledge FoundationThe Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that promotes open knowledge, including open content and open data. It was founded 24 May 2004 in Cambridge, UK...
) listing - OSI (Open Source InitiativeOpen Source InitiativeThe Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product...
) listing - Freedom Defined listing
- Fedora Project listing