[OSM-talk] OSM license change: A license to kill? -> How to make a nightmare come true!

[Dave Stubbs]

2009/3/5 Dave Stubbs <osm.list at randomjunk.co.uk>:
> 2009/3/5 Russ Nelson <russ at cloudmade.com>:
>>
>> On Mar 5, 2009, at 2:54 PM, Matt Amos wrote:
>>
>>  us trying to read a complex license
>> without comments is like lawyers trying to read complex code without
>> comments.
>>
>> They're mostly hard to read because they're tedious in their detail.  Legal
>> writing isn't actually THAT impenetrable, if you can stay awake (no,
>> seriously, I can only read 2-3 licenses at a time before I start to nod off.
>>  Takes me DAYS to read all the OSI-approved licenses).
>>
>
> The whole code/comments analogy seems the wrong one. Most people are
> after the user manual -- I don't want a step by step description of
> how the license works, I want a nice manual telling me how to use it.
> And like most open source projects there currently isn't one (at least
> not an up-to-date one). And for pretty much the same reasons (lack of
> people who are not one of: busy coding, rubbish at writing manuals,
> don't understand the program).

And I should have added "don't understand the user" to that list. But
then I'm rubbish at writing manuals :-)