Episode 29: How License Zero Works with Kyle Mitchell

Sponsored By:
Panelists Richard Littauer | Justin Dorfman | Pia Mancini |
Eric Berry | Allen “Gunner” Gunn Guest Kyle E. Mitchell Attorney,
License Zero Show Notes Kyle E. Mitchell is an independent Attorney
based in California. Today we talk to him about Open Source
subjects such as “License Zero.” He delves into the types of
licenses there are, what are their differences, and how they came
about. Also, be sure to check out this week’s spotlights for ways
to help out during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak. 1:42 Richard
ask Kyle about his blog post about License Zero, aka dual
licensing, selling exceptions, or public/private licensing. What it
is, what it does, and how Dev’s get paid for their creative work.
03:14 Kyle explains that License Zero has two types of licenses,
public, which is not open source and the other is parity. 06:55
Kyle talks about how License Zero started out with one licensing
choice. It was similar to the Creative Commons license used for
stock photos, music, etc. 10:24 Kyle reveals how he needed to
create a new license for License Zero, a share-alike license that
would help cover Dev’s work they were creating. 14:13 Pia asks
about projects that he’s had experience using this license with,
and lessons he’s learned. 21:00 Pia wants to know if License Zero
is creating complexity in the Open Source world by having different
licenses. Is this making it more difficult for people to navigate
and understand what they can and can’t do with those licenses? Kyle
goes into License Proliferation. 26:32 Richard brings up one of
Kyle’s blog posts about the “curse of sustainability” and how it’s
impossible to fix the open source problem. 33:04 So far, we’ve
mainly talked about the “what” of licensing. Gunner wants Kyle to
go into the “who” of licensing. Does he think of persona’s in the
licensing world? Spotlight 41:15 Pia’s spotlight is the collective
“Meals of Gratitude”, which sends meals to health workers. 41:52
Richard’s spotlight is FOSS Responders, which helps Open Source
Developers and Open Source Projects during this COVID-19 crisis.
42:32 Kyle piggybacks Richard’s spotlight with Bandcamp Daily,
which is also helping out music artist during COVID-19. 43:51
Gunner spotlights Indeed’s Head of Open Source, Duane O’Brien, who
spearheaded the FOSS Responders movement. 45:16 Kyle chimes in with
one more quick spotlight...Nick Craig-Wood’s Rclone library. Quotes
06:03 “And this idea that Open Source is a licensing question,
first and foremost, and then that’s the whole question is wrong.”
44:14 “The thing I’m amazed with Duane is that he’s spun up this
FOSS Responders project, he’s holding so many different communities
with integrity, and he’s doing his job for Indeed. But he’s walking
just 100% of what I consider to be free and Open source integrity.”
44:28 “He’s really being mindful of different communities and their
different cultures. And in this time of crisis we need cloning to
get done, so with Duane’s opt-in permission, we could have more
Duane’s in this world. I feel like he is setting an example we all
need to follow.” Links Kyle E. Mitchell Twitter
(https://twitter.com/kemitchell) Kyle E. Mitchell Writings
(https://writing.kemitchell.com/) Kyle E. Mitchell Website
(https://kemitchell.com/) Kyle E. Mitchell GitHub
(https://github.com/kemitchell) License Zero
(https://licensezero.com/) License Zero-Private License
(https://licensezero.com/licenses/private) License Zero-Prosperity
Public License (https://licensezero.com/licenses/prosperity)
License Zero-Parity Public License
(https://licensezero.com/licenses/parity) Creative Commons License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/) The Curse of Sustainability
(https://blog.licensezero.com/2020/03/07/cursed-problem.html)
Fernando Pessoa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Pessoa)
Open Collective-Meals of Gratitude
(https://opencollective.com/mealsofgratitude) FOSS Responders
(https://fossresponders.com/) Bandcamp Daily
(https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-covid-19-fundraiser)
Duane O’Brien Twitter (https://twitter.com/DuaneOBrien) Nick
Craig-Wood RClone Library (https://github.com/rclone/rclone)
Special Guest: Kyle E. Mitchell.