Re: PROPOSED: the Dictator Test (was: Contractual requirements [was: request-tracker3: license shadiness])

[Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com>]

Zenaan Harkness wrote:

<snip>
> Can we generalize and say something like any license which attempts to
> restrict beyond the lowest common denominator of copyright laws that
> exist today?
> 
> Or is the Autocrat Test simply a jurisdictional test?

Neither.  What I think it's about is precisely this from the GPL preamble:
"The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
freedom to share and change it."

And from GPL 0:
"Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
covered by this License; they are outside its scope."

A license should be granting permission, not taking away rights.  Period.

-- 
There are none so blind as those who will not see.